More Differences Seen in Humans, Chimps
From Times Wire Reports
There are more differences between a chimpanzee and a human being than once believed, according to a new genetic study. Biologists have long held that the genes of chimps and humans are about 98.5% identical.
But biologist Roy Britten of Caltech reported Sept. 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that a new way of comparing the genes shows that the human and chimp genetic similarity is only about 95%.
Britten based this on a computer program that compared 780,000 of the 3 billion base pairs in the human DNA helix with those of the chimp.
