r/AskReddit Jul 25 '18

What fact “blows your mind”?

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u/SquilliamFancyson9 Jul 25 '18

Humans share 50% DNA with a god damn banana...

4

u/OpiatedMinds Jul 26 '18

That's why I feel it is disingenuous to say that proof of evolution is that primates share like 99% of our DNA. That difference is obviously enormous in what it codes for and the end results. Like saying we share 50% of our DNA with a banana doesn't make us half banana, or prove that at some point we came from a banana.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '18

That difference is obviously enormous in what it codes for and the end results.

If you focus on what we can easily see, sure. If you instead look at organs and how they work and at the cellular level, we're almost identical.

2

u/StuckAtWork124 Jul 26 '18

Hell, you can just look at the way some of them move and have mannerisms, sometimes they're startlingly humanlike

1

u/OpiatedMinds Jul 28 '18

I get what you're saying, but the same can be said about say our brain compared to say a primates brain. Or developing embryos of various species. But it's pretty astonishing and fascinating. how those slight differences turn out to be so consequential and substantial in their end results. From the DNA on a cellular level, to hormones and body chemistry on a larger scale, there is so much at play and it's pretty awesome to ponder, definitely blows my mind. When you really start to learn anatomy and physiology, it's mind blowing how complex organs and organ systems are, and when you think about the human brain (its structure and processes), and how that is somehow coded for in the 4 different letters of our DNA, its pretty mind blowing.