When scientists originally studied the chimp genome, they used the human genome as a template. This scaffolding technique gave birth to the popular claim that chimp and human genomes are only 1 percent different. But new research has now blown the 1 percent myth out of the water. On a new episode of ID the Future, geologist Dr. Casey Luskin speaks with host Dr. Emily Reeves about this explosive new finding and what it means for the debate over evolution.

For a long time, the public has been told repeatedly that humans are about 98.8 percent genetically similar to chimpanzees. This statistic has been quoted in many places, including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, by Bill Nye the science guy, and in major scientific journals like National Geographic, Science, Scientific American, and even Nature prior to the new study. If you Google “human chimp DNA,” the very first item that comes up is a statement from the American Museum of Natural History in New York: “Humans and chimps share a surprising 98.8 percent of their DNA.” This supposed high degree of genetic similarity has often been used as an argument for common ancestry between humans and chimps, and against human exceptionalism. The 1 percent statistic has become so widely cited and accepted that it could be considered an “icon of evolution.”

However, a groundbreaking new study published in the journal Nature on April 9, 2025, is shedding new light on this topic. This study provides complete, from-scratch (de novo) sequences of various ape genomes, including the chimpanzee, allowing for a more accurate comparison than previous analyses that used human-guided scaffolding. According to Dr. Luskin, the data from this new Nature paper reveals that the true genetic difference between humans and chimps is significantly greater than previously stated. The difference is at least an order of magnitude larger, showing humans and chimps differ by at least 14 percent, a major revision of the old statistic. Luskin explains the significance of the finding: “This is really the first time that we can now hopefully get a much more accurate understanding of the true degree of genetic difference between humans and chimps.”

Download the podcast or listen to it here. Tune in to hear Dr. Luskin and Dr. Reeves unpack the findings of the new study and explain the implications of these findings for our understanding of human origins and genetic similarity.

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