biology

The Myth of the One Percent

The Myth of the One Percent is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Myth of the One Percent rather than just read about it. In short: The myth of the one percent refers to the 1975 study done by Wilson and King that asserted that human-chimpanzee divergence is about 1%. Humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, and the rapid evolution of chimpanzees and humans, along with gorillas and bonobos, has led to difficulties in creating an accurate lineage or tree topology.

Key takeaways

The Myth of the One Percent belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Myth of the One Percent to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Myth of the One Percent from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The myth of the one percent refers to the 1975 study done by Wilson and King that asserted that human-chimpanzee divergence is about 1%. Humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, and the rapid evolution of chimpanzees and humans, along with gorillas and bonobos, has led to difficulties in creating an accurate lineage or tree topology. Chimpanzees and humans were found to be a monophyletic clade, leading to the question of how closely related the two are. The assertion that human chimpanzee divergence is only 1% and subsequently the two species are 99% genetically identical was widely believed, but is now refuted by modern research that is able to look at entire genomes. It is now believed that the theory of 1% divergence only applies when looking at sequences that are aligned. After using resources not available in 1975, such as sequence data that is now available for multiple species, found multiple other aspects of the genome in humans and chimps that differ. This includes insertions and deletions as well as rearrangements and inversions of the genome. These genomic features help explain the changes that have occurred in humans since we last shared a common ancestor with chimps. The changes include around 35 million base-pair changes, 689 genes gained and 86 lost, the increase in brain mass, as well as the obvious ability to walk on two feet. With this new information, scientists now believe that there is approximately a 3% divergence due to indels on top of the originally believed 1%. Additionally, gene duplication and loss between the two species differs by 6.4%. There are also differences in the genetic networks and chromosome structure that make it difficult to quantify the relative change.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Myth of the One Percent

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Myth of the One Percent claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Myth of the One Percent before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Myth of the One Percent ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Myth of the One Percent

In research: The Myth of the One Percent appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Myth of the One Percent in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Myth of the One Percent is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Human evolution, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Myth of the One Percent outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Myth of the One Percent in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Myth of the One Percent means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Myth of the One Percent out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Myth of the One Percent in simple terms?

Why does The Myth of the One Percent matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Myth of the One Percent?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Myth of the One Percent.