The Crucial 0.1 Percent Difference

Abstract

Human beings, equipped with more genes than lesser creatures, are consequently smarter than other beasts. Right? Wrong. A frantic competition between two philosophies for deciphering the entire human genome has, in one of its important accomplishments, deflated this long‐standing presumption. Both competitors agree on an estimate that humans have about 30,000 genes, which is roughly the same as a mouse’s inventory of genes and well below earlier estimates of as much as 100,000 human genes. Furthermore, humans possess only 300 genes not found in mice.