Chimpanzee Genome Sequenced 51
dharash writes "Nature reports 'Researchers today released a draft version of the genetic sequence of our closest relative, the chimpanzee Pan troglodytes..The differences between the chimp's genetic code and ours should reveal what makes us human...' Click here for the entire article."
I already figured it out!! (Score:2, Funny)
Here's a hint! We're not monkeys!
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
To be really sure, we'll have to ask Darwin on this one.
I'll go prepare the time machine.
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:1)
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:1)
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
The difference is we have a complex of genes in the form of a monolith.
But attempt no landing there.
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:4, Informative)
Neither are chimps.
We already know that we're closely related to chimps in the gross sense - now we can get a much more precise idea of where, when and how we diverged. Pretty exciting stuff, but they should keep digging for bones - there's nothing like ground truth.
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
No, there's nothing like ground bones!
Oh yes! They're even better raw!
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:1)
Hmm, come to think of it, Darl McBride must be a chimpanzee.
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:2)
Re:I already figured it out!! (Score:1)
Assuming... (Score:4, Insightful)
Great - this will be useful (Score:5, Funny)
cvs rdiff -r chimp -r human genome | patch -p1
Re:Great - this will be useful (Score:2)
Re:Great - this will be useful (Score:2)
This could get dangerous (Score:2)
Re:This could get dangerous (Score:1)
Re:This could get dangerous (Score:1)
Great (Score:3, Interesting)
As they're virtual, they don't need to really pee, sleep, or eat. . As they're virtual, their number is limited Imagine what you could do with a million of those virtual monkeys, seated in front of virtual typewriters, in an infinite ammount of time.
Re:Great (Score:4, Interesting)
For every atom you simulate you need like 10000 times the atoms to store the information about it.
This means the physical space alone needed to store a full human in memory would be 10000 times bigger than the human
Lets see if quantum computers can help us here, because right now we can only store ~1 bit per atom, and we'd need atleast a few bits to describe what kind of atom it is and a few more bits to describe their position, states, charges, relation to nearby atoms etc. Superpositions might help us here, giving us more than 1 bit per atom.
This is just discussing the storage aspect, if that should be realtime you'd need a SHITLOAD of processors working on that.
Re:Great (Score:2)
Funded by Michael Jackson (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Funded by Michael Jackson (Score:4, Interesting)
regarding Bubbles: When chimps get older they get aggressive and really can't be handled by people anymore (unless you're Steve Irwin or any other of those nuts on Animal Planet). Jackson gave up Bubbles a while back, and the chimp is currently living at a facility in the north end of the San Fernando Valley, along with Geoffrey the giraffe (of Toys R Us commercial fame).
I had the quite unique experience of visiting this place last year, seeing where all the famous animal actors live. Bubbles was quite threatening, but the giraffe was loads of fun...
Should reveal what makes us human? (Score:4, Insightful)
People expect too much from genome sequencing. This is a dead genome, not an expressive genome configured with epigenetic states in a runtime environment as would exist in a living cell. This is a good first step, but a genome sequence is barely a start and inferring high-level characteristics from such a sequence is ridiculous.
Re:Should reveal what makes us human? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Should reveal what makes us human? (Score:2)
It's possible that we all have the gene for growing fur; it's just not switched on in human cells because of some other gene somewhere else, which may not be switched on because of some other gene...
So we'd find some gene that eventually turns on fur, but may also make our arms grow longer and our brains shrink (well, smaller than most people's).
Or it might be a simple expressive gene. It's not a sure thing, either way.
Re:Should reveal what makes us human? (Score:1)
Whether coarse hair is caused by a separate gene in chimps or humans and chimps both have it but it is suppressed by a different gene in humans is just the kind of thing that can now be learned with this data.
Humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor. The waters will be muddied by parallel mutations but it is a safe bet that the changes to the human genome that enabled the huge increase in cranial capacity will not be resident in chimp dna. Taking out all sequences shared by chimps and humans a
Re:Should reveal what makes us human? (Score:1)
Actually, it's quite possible that we have the gene that causes chimps to grow coarse hair on their bodies, but that we have another gene that represses the expression of coarse hair (or perhaps that we don't have the gene which turns on the expression of coarse hair).
Engineered Beings (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Engineered Beings (Score:1)
Re:Engineered Beings (Score:2)
What a difference 1% makes (Score:2)
Nature also reported... (Score:2, Interesting)
Importance of this (Score:1)
Bit torrent ? (Score:1)
Closest relative? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Closest relative? (Score:2)
But aren't bonobos chimps? Also, I believe that it's not really established yet ust how close chimps are to humans. Estimates range from 94% to 99%. This should settle it once the comparisons are done.
Re:Closest relative? (Score:3, Informative)
Follow-up (Score:2)
First order comparisons between the genomes are already being done. See this [nytimes.com]
Coolness.
Re:Closest relative? (Score:3, Informative)
Similarly, humans, common chimpanzees, and bonobo chimpanzees are all more closely related to each other than any is to the gorilla. Humans,
Re:Closest relative? (Score:1)