From James Fradgley
When discussing childhood development and its impact on human behaviour, Alison Gopnik twice makes an assertion that has become a commonplace: “We share almost all of our genes with our closest primate relatives, so where does our distinctively human intelligence come from?” and that we are “so startlingly different from our genetically similar primate relatives” (1 August, p 44).
In other places, we are told humans have 98 or 99 per cent commonality of genes with chimps. If you consider all the biochemistry and the kinds of structures humans and chimps have in common, then to suggest anything other than that we are almost identical is gross arrogance.
Wimborne, Dorset, UK
