Main content

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鈥檙e talking about DNA, not spirit animals. We often hear scientists talking about how we are related but what鈥檚 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)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Tue 18 Sep 2018 01:50GMT
91福利社 World Service except News Internet

More episodes

Previous

Male suicide, School ratings, Are female tennis players treated unfairly by umpires?

Next

How many schoolchildren are carers? Counting shareholder income, Museum visitors vs football fans

See all episodes from More or Less

Broadcasts

  • Sun 16 Sep 2018 18:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
  • Mon 17 Sep 2018 12:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except News Internet
  • Tue 18 Sep 2018 01:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except News Internet

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

91福利社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast

  • More or Less

    Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life