The 2% Difference

“The 2% Difference”

There is only 2% difference between chimpanzee and human’s DNA.

Written by Robert Sapolsky

Robert Maurice Sapolsky was born in 1957 and is an American scientist and author. He is a professor of Biological Sciences, Professor of Neurology, Neurological Sciences and Neurosurgery, at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. He studied at Harvard University and Rockefeller University. Robert Sapolsky has focused his research on neural degeneration and the issues of stress in order to find a way to prevent neurological disorders. Sapolsky had received many prestigious awards and honors for his work. His quotes are popular in the society.

a. Sustained- long- lasting.

b. Sentient- able to feel, conscious.

c. Aesthetics- feeling of beauty.

d. Poignancy- mordancy.

e. Puberty- period while which organism changes to be able for a sexual reproduction.

On page 134 I read about a very good example from the movie “King Kong” apes can feel and express emotions and we can see a part of them in ourselves and a part of us in them. Pages 134- 135 are helpful because they have a lot of information contrasting humans and apes. Many differences and similarities are expressed in those pages. On pages 32- 34 I found it helpful to re read information about the DNA. Also, I found helpful page 192 with a special topic about the difference between human and ape genes.

In the book I read about differences between brains of humans and apes, however I have read mostly about differences in brain size and structure. In the article I found it new and very interesting to look at brain differences from the neurologic perspective.

1. Humans have much bigger brains in comparison to their body size.

2. 2% difference in gene plays a huge role.

To be a human means not to be an animal, to have as little as 2% difference with chimp’s DNA and have more neurons and greater number of interactions between them.

The article was not that easy to understand, many complicated words are used and new information is narrow and direct to the point. I liked the part about human and ape having a direct eye contact. I found it very interesting and philosophical. However, it is still very hard to believe that there is 2% difference and now I have even more questions than I have had before reading the article.