Description

Humans are primates, and our closest relatives are the other African apes - chimpanzees closest of all. With the mapping of the human genome, and that of the chimp, a direct comparison of the differences between the two, letter by letter along the billions of As, Gs, Cs, and Ts of the DNA code, has led to the widely vaunted claim that we differ from chimps by a mere 1.6% of our genetic code. A mere hair's breadth genetically! To a rather older tradition of anthropomorphizing chimps, trying to get them to speak, dressing them up for 'tea parties', was added the stamp of genetic confirmation. It also began an international race to find that handful of genes that make up the difference - the genes that make us uniquely human.

But what does that 1.6% really mean? And should it really lead us to consider extending limited human rights to chimps, as some have suggested? Are we, after all, just chimps with a few genetic tweaks? Is our language and our technology just an extension of the grunts and ant-collecting sticks of chimps? In this book, Jeremy Taylor sketches the picture that is emerging from cutting edge research in genetics, animal behaviour, and other fields. The indications are that the so-called 1.6% is much larger and leads to profound differences between the two species. We shared a common ancestor with chimps some 6-7 million years ago, but we humans have been racing away ever since. One in ten of our genes, says Taylor, has undergone evolution in the past 40,000 years! Some of the changes that happened since we split from chimpanzees are to genes that control the way whole orchestras of other genes are switched on and off, and where. Taylor shows, using studies of certain genes now associated with speech and with brain development and activity, that the story looks to be much more complicated than we first thought. This rapidly changing and exciting field has recently discovered a host of genetic mechanisms that make us different from other apes.

As Taylor points out, for too long we have let our sentimentality for chimps get in the way of our understanding. Chimps use tools, but so do crows. Certainly chimps are our closest genetic relatives. But relatively small differences in genetic code can lead to profound differences in cognition and behavior. Our abilities give us the responsibility to protect and preserve the natural world, including endangered primates. But for the purposes of human society and human concepts such as rights, let's not pretend that chimps are humans uneducated and undressed. We've changed a lot in those 12 million years.

Features

• Brings together cutting-edge research in genetics, animal behaviour, and other fields.
• Argues against the common, romantic conception that chimps are like us, spread by Jane Goodall and others.
• Tackles the topical question of whether chimps are sufficiently close to humans to justify giving them limited human rights: campaigners are lobbying for a chimp in Austria, named 'Matthew Hiasl Pan' to be given rights and appointed a legal guardian.
• Gives fascinating accounts of animal behaviour - chimp studies, crows using tools - and the sometimes tragic results of our trust and belief in the 'humanness' of chimps.
• Concerns a fundamental question: what is the genetic basis of our human uniqueness, and how did it evolve?

Reviews

"Taylor's book is a superb account of recent advances in genetics which have refuted once and for all the belief that humans have hardly evolved since we parted company with the common ancestor of ourselves and modern chimpanzees." --PsychologyToday.com

"A provocative book that should be read by anyone interested in the debate about similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees."--Dan Agin, Huffington Post

"Not a Chimp should be mandatory reading for journalists who often reinforce the general public's misconception that chimps are practically human." --New Scientist

"A refreshing defense of human uniqueness."--The Spiked Review of Books

listed in Science Book News No. 172

"Taylor's arguments are generally well-reasoned, supported by clear analyses and ongoing genetics research, and he's adept at explaining complex molecular processes and their study for non-geneticists." --Publishers Weekly Online

"Terrific, rabble-rousing...[Taylor] makes the point--and follows it with a very detailed, very convincing layman's tour of the neuroscience involved--that when it comes to evolution and life sciences, tiny percentage points can make gigantic differences." --Open Letters Monthly

Product Details

256 pages; 15 B&W halftones & line drawings; 5-1/2 x 8-1/2; ISBN13: 978-0-19-922778-5ISBN10: 0-19-922778-0

About the Author(s)