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DNA: Are you more Chimp or Neanderthal?

What is the difference between 96% similarity and sharing 20% of our DNA?

Are you more chimp or Neanderthal? We’re talking about DNA, not spirit animals. We often hear scientists talking about how we are related but what’s the difference between 96% similarity and sharing 20% of our DNA, and do some of us literally have pieces of Neanderthal within us? Tim speaks to Peter Donnelly, Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, to help answer this genetic generation game.

Producer: Lizzy McNeill
Presenter: Tim Harford

(image: a model of the DNA Double Helix 2017. Photo credit:Universal History Archive UIG/Getty Images)

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9 minutes

Last on

Tue 18 Sep 2018 01:50GMT
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except News Internet

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