Going forward, Rubin plans to construct a library of sequence fragments so that future researchers can compare human sequences with Neandertal sequences easily. Pääbo's group, on the other hand, plans to use samples from the single bone over the next two years to construct a rough draft of the Neandertal genome. "Any scientist in the future who studies some particular gene and finds something functionally important between humans and the great apes and shows that that's really functionally important will immediately be able to look in the computer and see what the Neandertals [were] like," Pääbo says. "The Neandertal genome sequence just by itself will not tell us what makes humans special, it will always be in conjunction with other work that really addresses the biology of a specific change," he says.



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9 Comments
Add CommentBiblical Nephilim.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen in the evolutionary process did Adam and Eve emerge?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow long did it take Adam to become Adam?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it is possible to reconstruct a skull to see what it looked like why has no one reconstructed Jesus christ to see exactly what he looked like?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it is possible to reconstruct a skull to show what he or she looked like. Why has no one, constructed a face to see exactly what Jesus christ looked like?
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy have we not used the shroud of turin to determine exactly what Jesus Christ looked like?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy do we continually repeate ourselves when no one answers?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll answer. The reason that we don't usually bother is that most of the questions aren't consistent with reality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. The scientific evidence indicates that the Shroud of Turin was created during the middle ages. You would be able to tell exactly what a European from that time period looked like, not Jesus Christ
2. Evidently you've never actually read the Bible, or you would remember that Jesus rose from the dead 3 days after he was buried. No body to do a DNA analysis of.
3. Genetically, "Eve", the earliest common female ancestor, the genetic "mother of us all", would have lived about 200,000 years ago. That doesn't mean she was the earliest human, though. In purely biblical terms, the ancient hebrew word "Adam" is both Man and Mankind. The word that was used for "day" could also be used for "epoch". The word that is translated as the literal, precise "40 days and 40 nights" also means the generic "A long time". By using the Latin translation and ignoring other translations of the ancient Hebrew words, some highly respected Catholic priest decided that the world has only been around a few thousand years. But even Samuel 3, one of the books that didn't make it into the modern bible, but was considered part of the Old Testament at the time Jesus was alive, and that the New Testament often cites passages from, especially when John talks about fulfilling prophecies, mentions an angel having served 10 million years in Hell as punishment for a crime.
It's not all that difficult to reconcile faith and science, but if you listen to the ravings of the lunatic fringe on both sides, they seem to actually want to hate each other for no good reason.