A new study showed yesterday that humans are less evolved than chimpanzees. One of those absolutely unintelligible scientific articles published in 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan, based on loads of comparisons between genes of both species, has found that natural selection has operated more actively on chimps. It’s been reported (here, here or here) that they have 233 genes which show selection, while we have a mere 154. These creatures, with which we share 98.77% of our genes, can outperform us in memory tasks (Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter) and, thanks to selection, have fewer inherited diseases.
The reason behind our relative lag in evolution seems to be that the original human population was very small, much smaller than that of chimpanzees - which would have reduced the effectiveness of natural selection through the genetic exchange within the population. So, it happens to be we are under-evolved inbreeds.
On a magazine on computers, the one of those weird I.T. experts counseled our species by saying that even if they out-evolve us some day they'll still have horrible-looking bottoms and crooked teeth (Could next Bill Gates be a chimp?). While in Belgium, for a completely different reason, visitors to the Zoo have been banned from making eye contact with apes: “We are saying to visitors that, if our apes hold eye contact with them, then they should look away for a bit or take a step back”. These animals must really think we are strange. And our genetically-better-equipped fellow apes would be quite right in doing so.
Yesterday, after the mixture of savagery and incompetence that led to the Virginia killings, seems like a perfect day for scientists to place human beings a couple of steps back in the evolutionary ladder [Notice how I didn’t make any comments on that second-amendment-republican-NRA-God-Bless-America Land of the Braves, and how I’ve resisted the temptation to bring up the red-neck-nation issue behind Dom Imus’ racist comments and how 45% of public opinion backs these up, aaah, I’m a master of self control!].
These are bad times to be a homo sapiens.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan, based on loads of comparisons between genes of both species, has found that natural selection has operated more actively on chimps. It’s been reported (here, here or here) that they have 233 genes which show selection, while we have a mere 154. These creatures, with which we share 98.77% of our genes, can outperform us in memory tasks (Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter) and, thanks to selection, have fewer inherited diseases.The reason behind our relative lag in evolution seems to be that the original human population was very small, much smaller than that of chimpanzees - which would have reduced the effectiveness of natural selection through the genetic exchange within the population. So, it happens to be we are under-evolved inbreeds.
On a magazine on computers, the one of those weird I.T. experts counseled our species by saying that even if they out-evolve us some day they'll still have horrible-looking bottoms and crooked teeth (Could next Bill Gates be a chimp?). While in Belgium, for a completely different reason, visitors to the Zoo have been banned from making eye contact with apes: “We are saying to visitors that, if our apes hold eye contact with them, then they should look away for a bit or take a step back”. These animals must really think we are strange. And our genetically-better-equipped fellow apes would be quite right in doing so.Yesterday, after the mixture of savagery and incompetence that led to the Virginia killings, seems like a perfect day for scientists to place human beings a couple of steps back in the evolutionary ladder [Notice how I didn’t make any comments on that second-amendment-republican-NRA-God-Bless-America Land of the Braves, and how I’ve resisted the temptation to bring up the red-neck-nation issue behind Dom Imus’ racist comments and how 45% of public opinion backs these up, aaah, I’m a master of self control!].
These are bad times to be a homo sapiens.
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