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Asked by anon-210000 to Verity, Sergio, Nick, Maria, David, Annette on 12 Mar 2019.
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Sergio Adan Bermudez answered on 12 Mar 2019:
Theoretically, and very recently, there has been added other 4 nucleobases to the DNA. A nucleobase is basically the most basic unit that codifies for our DNA, the genetic information. It has been proved that, by using different nucleobases to the ones we are formed, we can create stable molecules. So, with this, in theory, we can create analogue species similar to us that do not have to be humans (if these sequences are able to code for life of course). We have to keep in mind that we only differ from primates in less than 1% of our genetic code, so there is always room for getting closer to humans but not being one (physically or intellectually).
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Nick Werren answered on 12 Mar 2019: last edited 12 Mar 2019 6:16 pm
This is a very interesting question! The answer is yes, lots of animals are very similar to us and as Sergio said – primates are more than 99% similar to us but they’re still different in loads of ways!
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There was actually a species of ape that was similar to humanity a long time ago called Australopithecus Garhi, they are thought to be a bridge between ancient apes and humanity. If they had not disappeared then it’s possible that they would have evolved into a species that were very similar to humanity but also different.
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This is a great question, and made me look up some very interesting articles. I find it fascinating that there used to be so many species of ape similar to humans but they’ve all disappeared. We’re the only ones left! -
David Whitworth answered on 12 Mar 2019:
I think Nick and Sergio have given good answers on the science to this one, my question though would be, should we? Is it ethical to combine different species? If we could do this, what would be the impact on the species? How would it interact with other species? How would we treat it? If it was similar to us in thoughts and actions, but not human, what rights does it have? When we do science, especially things like genetics, the study of cloning, stem cell research, human drug trials we have to think about the ethics behind what we do as well. Is it ok to combine dog and cat dna and create a new species? Is it ok that I take stem cells from an embryo if they might save another persons life? Just because we can do these things, does that mean we should? Being an astrophysicist I don’t come up against ethics very often, other than the environmental impact of sending telescopes into space on a guilty conscience level. But ethics is a very large part of all science, we have to push the boundaries of human knowledge, but also thing of the consequences of what we do.
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Maria Walach answered on 15 Mar 2019:
Of course! It depends how different/similar you want it to be – there are some limitations but scientists have even found ways of editing human DNA with a thing called CRISPR. With it, scientists can edit the genes of babies to make sure certain parts of their DNA are either enhanced or altered. It’s a bit like taking scissors and cutting things out of the DNA that you don’t want and putting things in that you do want – like the copy/cut/paste tools on the computer!
There are some ethical questions regarding this and as David said, just because we can doesn’t necessarily mean we should.
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