What makes us unique? Not junk DNA. PhysOrg has an article titled What makes us unique? Not genes so much as surrounding sequences. Those surrounding sequences include binding sites for transcription factors which are connected with gene expression. Why are some afflicted with teleological blindness? Could be their binding sites. 
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March 24th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves, by James Le Fanu tells us why we are unique.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Us-S...
Comment by neddy — March 24, 2010 @ 9:34 pm
March 28th, 2010 at 1:22 am
One does not need a large amount of change in any part of the genome to effect radical change. Consider what happens if one takes a very large detailed set of driving directions and changes a few turns!
But the differences between human and chimp are more substantial than some will admit. Most comparisons are no better than taking two novels and creating a vocabulary listing of the words in each novel and then concluding "look the words are 98% similar". It is an illegitimate comparison.
For sure, we are closer to chimps than bananas. But to do sequence comparison by merely comparing genes is like comparing novels soley on their vocabularies, not on how the words are expressed. What is true for the expression of words holds true for the expression of genes.
Comment by Salvador T. Cordova — March 28, 2010 @ 1:22 am
March 28th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
me.uniq!
Comment by Mung — March 28, 2010 @ 11:36 pm