Necessary Roughness

HT: Drudge

The Independent, reprinted in the Belfast Telegraph (link down) reported on the 23^rd that humans are more different from the other animals than we used to think.

Previously it was thought that merely the sequence of A-C-T-G one learned about in high school biology that determined variety among humans. Now it seems there are multiple copies of key genes that lend even more to variety.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.

The studies published today have found that instead of having just two copies of each gene - one from each parent - people can carry many copies, but just how many can vary between one person and the next.

The studies suggest variations in the number of copies of genes is normal and healthy. But the scientists also believe many diseases may be triggered by an abnormal loss or gain in the copies of some key genes.

Another implication of the finding is that we are more different to our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, than previously assumed from earlier studies. Instead of being 99 per cent similar, we are more likely to be about 96 per cent similar.

If you don’t feel like reading the whole article, scroll to the end of the article. The Independent provides a nice summary. One gene seems to confer resistance to HIV. Another, malaria.

This not only fuels hope for cures but throws more fuel on the fire about the uniqueness of man and the creation vs. evolution vs. intelligent design debates. Even atheists can be intensely ideological and risk incorporating their belief systems into their work. The point should not be to prove or disprove God in nature. We should be finding out what this world is that has been given to us and how we can use it to help our fellow man. Who provided it should be left to special revelation.