Genomics is raising a mirror to humanity, producing some surprising reflections
THE decade since the genome announcement has seen many remarkable results. Vying with Dr Venter’s synthetic life for the title of the most extraordinary was the announcement on February 12th 2009 (by no mere coincidence Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday) that a second species of human had had its genome sequenced. Svante Paabo, the inspiration for Michael Crichton’s novel and film, “Jurassic Park”, told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that his team at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig had a version of Neanderthal man’s DNA to compare with that of modern humans.
The actual comparison was not published until six weeks ago, on May 6th. It was, however, worth waiting for. It showed similarities between the species (in, for example, the FOXP2 gene that helps govern the ability to speak) as well as differences (in several genes connected with cognitive ability). These differences are obvious places to start looking for the essence of modern humanity—the things that distinguish Homo sapiens from other animals, including other types of human, and thus accounts for the extraordinary flourishing of a species that is now estimated to make use of 40% of the net primary productivity (the energy captured by photosynthesis and converted into plant matter) of the planet’s land surface. …