Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Neanderthals Always Hovered On The Verge Of Extinction
According to this New Scientist piece, recent work on mitochondrial DNA from a variety of Neanderthal remains spanning Europe to western Asia - by Adrian Briggs of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig - has concluded that genetic heterogeneity among Neanderthals was much lower than either chimps or modern humans and that, for much of their existence, there were unlikely to have been more than a few hundred thousand Neanderthals spread across this vast geographical area. Small population size, small group size and low genetic heterogeneity are a recipe for extinction. Neanderthals would not have needed roving bands of modern humans attacking them with deadly intent. Deleterious mutations would have done the trick.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
"The Independent" Reviews "Not A Chimp".
A very positive review for NOT A CHIMP, from Peter Forbes in The Independent, this time stressing the genetics. Here's a flavour of it:
"That we are 98.4 per cent genetically identical to chimpanzees is one of the more misleading factoids of our time......In Not a Chimp, the TV science producer and director Jeremy Taylor gives case histories of the search for those crucial genes that make us human. The FOXP2 gene, for instance, discovered in a family with a history of language difficulties, is now known to be important for speech and comprehension in humans and, amazingly, for the ability of birds to sing......That 98.4 per cent similarity has fuelled a movement to accord chimpanzees human rights. However, Taylor demonstrates that if we are looking for the nearest thing to human intelligence, it seems to reside not in chimps, but in birds – especially crows. The record of human evolution will become dramatically clearer in five to ten years time. Meanwhile, for an idea of why we are more than a chimpanzee plus 1.6 per cent, start here."
"That we are 98.4 per cent genetically identical to chimpanzees is one of the more misleading factoids of our time......In Not a Chimp, the TV science producer and director Jeremy Taylor gives case histories of the search for those crucial genes that make us human. The FOXP2 gene, for instance, discovered in a family with a history of language difficulties, is now known to be important for speech and comprehension in humans and, amazingly, for the ability of birds to sing......That 98.4 per cent similarity has fuelled a movement to accord chimpanzees human rights. However, Taylor demonstrates that if we are looking for the nearest thing to human intelligence, it seems to reside not in chimps, but in birds – especially crows. The record of human evolution will become dramatically clearer in five to ten years time. Meanwhile, for an idea of why we are more than a chimpanzee plus 1.6 per cent, start here."
Monday, 13 July 2009
Does Language Shape The Way We Think?
Do we humans all think in the same way, but express our thoughts differently depending upon which language we speak, or does the language we speak literally shape our thoughts? This interesting essay by Lera Boroditsky on EDGE aims to shed light on this perennial question and believes the latter is true. Particularly fascinating is her account on language and thought in the Kuuk Thayoore aborigines of northern Australia. Go to edge.org and scroll down to EDGE 289 for 12th June 2009.