Posted on 11/22/2012 12:40:23 PM PST by Fractal Trader
What makes us human? Some say that it is the development of language, though others argue that animals have language as well. Some say that it is our ability to use tools, though many animals are able to use rocks and other objects as primitive tools. Some say that it is our ability to see death coming.
Now, researchers believe that they have found the definitive difference between humans and other primates, and they think that the difference all comes down to a single gene.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland attribute the split of humanity from apes to the gene miR-941. They say that the gene played an integral role in human development and contributed to humans' ability to use tools and learn languages.
Most of the time, when one species diverges from another, that difference occurs because of gene mutations, duplications, or deletions. However, this gene is believed to have emerged, fully functional, from "junk DNA" in a breathtakingly short amount of evolutionary time.
Humans share 96 percent of their genes with other primates. Of the 4 percent that humans alone have, a significant portion of it has been widely labeled "junk DNA". Researchers have since that "junk DNA" is functional, even though it does not code. This is the first time that a gene that humans and other primates do not share has been shown to actually have a specific function within the body.
Researchers came to this conclusion after comparing the human genome to 11 other species of mammals, including gorillas, chimpanzees, mice, and rats. These comparisons were made so that the geneticists could find the difference between them.
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers say that the gene emerged sometime between six and one million years ago. The gene is highly active in the regions of the brain that control language learning and decision making, indicating that it may play a significant role in the higher brain functions that make humans, well, human.
Ok the next time we need eye bleach, this is it.
Dang!!! I love genetics.
Does that mean apes are descended from humans?
God works in mysterious ways...very mysterious.
Now there is a post I’ll bet some DUmper puts up over there on that site as ‘proof’ FReepers are knuckle dragging racists. Not that I really give a hoot what those clowns think but just sayin’. Flame away folks!
You will never get me to believe there’s only one gene difference between those sweeties and an ape, but I want proof, I think they should take their genes off so we can look.
Yes. First they devolved into democrats, then they grew hair and learned to live in the trees, make funny noises and scream for no apparent reason.
This is why I don’t eat bananas in public, they’ll steal them right out of your hand.
Whatever that gene does, it wasn’t fully expressed in a couple of friends of mine. I used to think they just had more Neanderthal than most Europeans.
this “human” ape gene works a lot better in some people these days than others...
More correctly.....a monkey was your uncle (actually great x 10^4 or 5 uncle).
must be Papa in the middle flanked by the Oom Mow Mows
;>)
Very nice, but how many horses did you see?
The “scientists” monkeyed around with the data!
And a lot of them get CPUs that were binned out for low speed operation.
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