Interesting bit of information taken from the GUARDIAN science
site. Are there genetic differences between "races"? Mark Pagel,
evolutionary biologist at Reading University. His research
includes work on language and cultural evolution. "Flawed as the
old ideas about race are, modern genomic studies reveal a
surprising, compelling and different picture of human genetic
diversity. We are on average about 99.5% similar to each other
genetically. This is a new figure, down from the previous
estimate of 99.9%. To put what may seem like minuscule
differences in perspective, we are somewhere around 98.5%
similar, maybe more, to chimpanzees, our nearest evolutionary
relatives. "The new figure for us, then, is significant. It
derives from among other things, many small genetic differences
that have emerged from studies that compare human populations
... Like it or not, there may be many genetic differences among
human populations - including differences that may even
correspond to old categories of "race" - that are