Latest news with #ScienceandHumanOrigins
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Smithsonian Exhibit Overstates Genetic Similarity Between Humans and Apes and Should Be Fixed Says Science Group
SEATTLE, May 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- An exhibit on human origins at the Smithsonian vastly overstates the genetic similarity between humans and apes and needs to be fixed according to Discovery Institute. This week the Institute sent a letter to Smithsonian leadership pointing out that an exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C. contains serious misstatements of scientific fact. For example, the NMNH tells visitors that human beings and chimps are "98.8% genetically similar." But new research published in the gold-standard science journal Nature shows that the real similarity is only 84-86%. The Smithsonian exhibit makes similar overstatements about the genetic similarities between humans and gorillas and orangutans. "The Smithsonian is promoting inaccurate information to the public by seriously understating the genetic differences between humans and apes," says scientist Dr. Casey Luskin, who wrote the letter to the Smithsonian. "The actual difference in DNA between humans and chimps is over ten times greater than what the Smithsonian says." Genetic differences are found throughout the human and ape genomes, and include millions of single nucleotide differences, as well as much larger DNA differences, including differences in the lengths of functionally important repetitive DNA. The data from the Nature paper indicates that human and chimpanzee genomes are roughly 15% different. In his letter, Luskin urged the Smithsonian "to correct the Exhibit to reflect more current, accurate scientific data. The NMNH is the nation's premiere science museum, and it would be inexcusable for the museum to present scientifically inaccurate data about human genetic similarity to apes to the public. To fail to correct this data is to use taxpayer money to miseducate the public about a question of profound scientific, sociological, and philosophical interest." Luskin is Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute and is co-author of the book Science and Human Origins. He holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg. Discovery Institute is a non-profit educational and research organization whose mission is to advance a culture of purpose, creativity, and innovation with programs in areas such as economics, education, technology, bioethics, and artificial intelligence. View original content: SOURCE Discovery Institute Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New Research Overturns Claim that Humans and Chimps Differ by Only 1% in Their DNA
SEATTLE, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- For years, the public has been told that human beings and chimpanzees are, in genetic terms, only "1 percent" different. But according to Discovery Institute scientist Dr. Casey Luskin, this claim has just been overturned by research recently published in Nature, the world's most prestigious science journal. "The actual difference between the human and chimp genomes turns out to be much greater than previously claimed," said Luskin. "Instead of 1 percent, it's between 14 to 14.9 percent. That's 14 times more than the often-quoted 1 percent statistic." Luskin has written extensively on the issue of human origins and human uniqueness, including co-authoring the book Science and Human Origins. Luskin says that previous comparisons between chimps and humans were based on incomplete data that used the human genome to extrapolate information about the chimp genome. Thus, ape and man appeared far more similar than they are in reality. Strangely, the Nature article buries this explosive new information deep in the Supplementary Data, and then obscures it in technical jargon. "This is a major scientific discovery," said Luskin, "yet those involved don't seem interested in highlighting it. Why?" Luskin analyzes the new data in a two-part series at Evolution News and Science Today, where he points out the cultural significance of the findings. He points out that the 1% claim has widely functioned as a kind of "icon of evolution" in public discussions, used to assert that humans are just slightly modified chimps. Signage at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, for example, currently informs visitors that "You and chimpanzees [are] 98.8% genetically similar." The museum is visited by nearly 4 million people each year. Similarly, science popularizer Bill Nye has written in his bestselling book Undeniable, "As our understanding of DNA has increased, we have come to understand that we share around 98.8 percent of our gene sequence with chimpanzees." Luskin calls on science educators and museums to correct the record: "This icon of evolution has now been falsified. It's misinformation, and it needs to be corrected." Discovery Institute is a non-profit educational and research organization whose mission is to advance a culture of purpose, creativity, and innovation with programs in areas such as economics, education, technology, bioethics, and artificial intelligence. View original content: SOURCE Discovery Institute
