Researchers were surprised to learn that the DNA sequences of human and chimpanzee genes are nearly identical, so what is responsible for the many differences between the two species? Here’s why we want to find out: Chimps get MUCH LESS cancer than we do.

For years, scientists believed the vast differences between humans and chimpanzees would be easily explained, but when their genomes were sequenced, researchers discovered that the insertion and deletion of large pieces of DNA near genes are highly variable between humans and chimpanzees and this may account for major differences between the two species.
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Mexico’s archeologists don’t put much credence in the ancient Mayan prediction that the world will end in December of 2012, but at a recent press conference they admitted that a second reference to that date has been found on a carved fragment at a southern Mexican Mayan site. Is this the secret they’ve been hinting about?
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Where do languages come from? Many linguists think that all human languages came from a single one that was spoken in East Africa around 50,000 years ago. But how would it have sounded–would it have been mainly grunts? New research suggests that it sounded somewhat like the speech of Yoda in "Star Wars."

In LiveScience.com, Natalie Wolchover quotes linguist Merritt Ruhlen as saying, "This language would have been spoken by a small East African population who seemingly invented fully modern language and then spread around the world, replacing everyone else."
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When we’re looking for extraterrestrial life, other moons may be our best bet. Among the most habitable alien worlds is Saturn’s moon Titan.

In recent years, the search for potentially habitable planets outside our solar system has increased. NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009, has found more than 1,000 possible planets so far. BBC News quotes astronomer Dirk Schulze-Makuch as saying, "The first question is whether Earth-like conditions can be found on other worlds, since we know empirically that those conditions could harbor life."
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