The Neanderthal in all of us

In Elizabeth Kolbert's beautiful article on what makes Neanderthals and modern humans different she opens up the question of just how much of our DNA comes from Neanderthals. Based on the research by Svante Pääbo the answer to this is about 1-4% for all of European and Asian descent. This opens up the door to what makes modern humans so different and what compelled humans thousands of years ago to "sleep with the enemy."

Using DNA preserved from thousands of years ago Paabo is trying to locate certain genes that hold the tipping point that allowed Homo sapiens to populate the globe, and spelled bad luck for our Neanderthal cousins. His goal is ambitious. He hopes to sequence the whole of the Neanderthal genome and compare it to the already sequenced genome of modern humans.

But already progress has been made and shocking discoveries realized. A piece of DNA from a preserved fingernail shows that the owner was neither human nor Neanderthal but both. These interbred individuals survived and were able to produce offspring on to the present. Other genes, like FOXP2 gene, seem to point toward language. The RUNX2 gene shows abnormalities in bone formation between Neanderthals and sapiens. These genes are being spliced into mice and studied extensively in laboratory studies to answer the eternal question: What makes humans different?

For Paabo that answers seems, in part, to be insanity. As he states, "only fully modern humans . . . start this thing of venturing out on the ocean where you don’t see land. Part of that is technology, of course; you have to have ships to do it. But there is also, I like to think or say, some madness there. You know? How many people must have sailed out and vanished on the Pacific before you found Easter Island? I mean, it’s ridiculous. And why do you do that? Is it for the glory? For immortality? For curiosity? And now we go to Mars. We never stop."

Another seems to be the gene for aestheticism that lead humans to carve paintings on dark cave walls and string together pearls. And wouldn't it be funny if what makes us all so different was just that? An eye for art, an ear for language, and a touch of madness.