Given Gemini’s obvious attempts to put a thumb on the scale, I thought it would be interesting to see how Deep Seek did when posed exactly the same questions. The results so far are inconclusive and underwhelming.
Given the average length in years of a human generation, and assuming that the Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor lived 9 million years ago, how many human generations has it been since the Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor?
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UPDATE: The version made available by Gab did better.
The user is asking how many human generations have passed since the Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor (CHLCA), which was 9 million years ago. They mention using the average length of a human generation. Hmm, so first I need to figure out the average generation length and then divide 9 million by that number.
Wait, but what exactly is considered a generation here? Is it the average age of parents when they have offspring? I think that’s typically how generation length is defined. For humans, I remember reading that a generation is roughly 20 to 30 years. But I should verify the exact value. Maybe different sources use slightly different numbers. For example, some studies might use 25 years as an average. Let me recall. The Generation length can vary depending on the context—demographic, genetic, or historical. In population genetics, they often use 25 to 30 years. But I need to pick a standard value here. Maybe the user expects an approximate answer, so perhaps 25 years is a commonly cited average. Alternatively, if I check some references, the OECD uses 25 years for a generation, and some genetic studies use around 25-30. Let’s go with 25 years as a middle ground. So if each generation is 25 years, then the number of generations would be 9,000,000 divided by 25.
By the way, that was significantly reduced from the original wall of text. Deep Seek really agonizes over its answers.
Scientists have measured a genetic difference between modern humans and modern chimpanzees measured in DNA base pairs. How large is that difference and how many genetic fixation events are required to account for it?
First, I remember that humans and chimpanzees share a very high percentage of their DNA, often cited as around 98-99% similarity. But the exact figure can vary depending on the study and what’s being measured. For example, some sources say 98.7%, others might say 95% when considering insertions and deletions (indels) and other structural variations. So the actual number of differing base pairs would depend on the total genome size and the percentage difference.
The human genome is roughly 3 billion base pairs long. If we take the commonly cited 1.2% difference (from the 98.8% similarity), that would be 3,000,000,000 * 0.012 = 36 million base pairs different. But wait, I need to check if that includes all types of variations or just substitutions. Because indels (insertions or deletions) can cause more significant differences. For example, a study in 2005 suggested that the actual single nucleotide substitutions account for about 1.23% difference, and when including indels, the total difference increases to around 4% or higher. But maybe more recent studies have updated these numbers.
Alternatively, the 1.2% figure is often used for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), while structural variations add more. However, the user specifically mentions “DNA base pairs,” which might refer to single nucleotide differences. But it’s a bit ambiguous. Let me confirm: DNA base pair differences can include substitutions, insertions, deletions. So total difference would be all those.
So to summarize:
- Genetic difference: ~35-40 million base pairs (considering SNPs and small indels), or higher with structural variations.
- Fixation events: Approximately equal to the number of differences, so ~35-40 million, as each difference is a fixation in one lineage.
However, it’s important to note that some studies might present different numbers. For example, a commonly cited figure is about 35 million single nucleotide differences and around 5 million indels, totaling 40 million. Therefore, the answer would be that the genetic difference is approximately 40 million base pairs, and around 40 million genetic fixation events are required. </Thinking>
The genetic difference between modern humans and chimpanzees, measured in DNA base pairs, is approximately 35–40 million differences when considering single nucleotide substitutions (SNPs) and small insertions/deletions (indels). This represents about 1.2–1.3% divergence in aligned sequences of the ~3 billion base pair genome. Including larger structural variations (e.g., duplications, inversions), the total divergence increases to 4–5%, but these are less often counted as individual base pair differences.
For genetic fixation events (mutations that become universal in a population), the total number required to account for these differences is roughly equivalent to the number of observed differences. This is because each divergence represents a fixation event in one lineage (human or chimpanzee) since their split from the CHLCA ~7–9 million years ago.
Summary:
- Base pair differences: ~35–40 million (SNPs and indels).
- Fixation events: ~35–40 million (assuming each difference arose and fixed in one lineage).