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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 201801:50GMT
BBC World Service except News Internet

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Broadcasts

  • Sun 16 Sep 201818:50GMT
    BBC World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
  • Mon 17 Sep 201812:50GMT
    BBC World Service except News Internet
  • Tue 18 Sep 201801:50GMT
    BBC World Service except News Internet

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