chimps close to humans by 98.8%

[sappatz]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4197844.stm

this increases to 99,9% for MS .NET code monkeys

[OwlHoot]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4197844.stm

this increases to 99,9% for MS .NET code monkeys

I'm sure this has been known for several years - Must still be the silly season if they have to rehash old news.

What amazes me is how genetically complex the grass family (including wheat, bamboo, rice, etc) is, with more genes than humans, about 20,000 I think. What the heck does it need so many for, just to sit around looking green?

Oddly enough the grasses only evolved about 20 million years ago, which I guess makes them the primates of the plant world, and maybe a prerequisite of our own evolution.

[xoggoth]

Good news! Legalisation of sex with chimpanzees cannot be far off. Not that I fancy chimps, but I bet baboons must be 90% similar, sounds near enough to me.

In any case, if incest is a bad thing due to DNA similarity and possibility of passing on defective genes, surely a wider genetic difference must be a good thing? I bet we have no identifiable shared genetic defects with slugs or indeed any other molluscs.

[GiGo]

Big deal. Humans also have about 40% DNA in common with a lettuce.

[threaded]

OwlHoot: Orchids would be the higher primates, or maybe even the humans of the plant world. Being everywhere humans have got to.

Incidentally Darwins next book after, "It took longer than seven days" was "How dreadfully complicated are the methods that orchids get pollinated by buzzing things, and what lovely things happens if you do it instead"

Of which I have a signed first edition, being an avid orchid type person.

Which is nice.

[Lucifer Box]

I'm sure this has been known for several years - Must still be the silly season if they have to rehash old news.

What amazes me is how genetically complex the grass family (including wheat, bamboo, rice, etc) is, with more genes than humans, about 20,000 I think. What the heck does it need so many for, just to sit around looking green?

Oddly enough the grasses only evolved about 20 million years ago, which I guess makes them the primates of the plant world, and maybe a prerequisite of our own evolution.

These 20 million year old grasses were put there by satan to deceive the unwary.

But, yes, they are genetically very complex. In my pre-IT days, I did some research in genetic scanning of the wheat genome to find homologues of the yeast growth genes (eventually to enable engineering of faster growing strains, etc). The paper was the snappily titled "Yeast CDC7 Homologues in Wheat Genes". This was tricky both because the wheat genome is extremely complex plus, of course, DNA fingerprinting techniques were still in their early days and largely done manually.

[Darren@UptonAccountants]

Chimps

"chimps close to humans by 98.8%"

Stick a phot of a chimp next to one of George Bush, the likeness is uncanny!!