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of genetics over culture, Dawkins, an Oxford professor, nonetheless continues to probe the biological basis of human behavior, including its role in religion and belief in God. In a later work,
The Ancestor’s Tale
, Dawkins explored the concept of a unified biology, identifying the shared ancestry across species—among them hippos, jellyfish, and single-celled organisms.
    In 2005,
Nature
published a study that redefined the conversation: the human genome is 98.6 percent similar to that of chimpanzees. That single statistic inspired many people, and not only scientists, to reconsiderwhat defines us as humans. Now, instead of trying to prove the
existence
of a connection between animals and humans, the race is on to explore the depth and breadth of this enormous overlap.
    The challenge has led scientists to explore far beyond great apes. Biologists are rapidly uncovering ancient genetic similarities that link diverse species—mammals, reptiles, birds, and even insects. The discovery is astonishing: nearly identical clusters of genes have been passed down for billions of years, from cell to cell and organism to organism. These remarkably unchanged gene groups code for similar structures and even similar reflexes across species. In other words, a common genetic “blueprint” instructed the embryos of Shamu, Secretariat, and Kate Middleton to grow different, yet homologous, limbs: steering flippers, thundering hooves, and regal, waving arms.
Deep homology
is the term coined by biologists Sean B. Carroll, Neil Shubin, and Cliff Tabin to describe these genetic kernels we share with nearly all creatures. Deep homology explains how genes taken from a sighted mouse and placed into a blind fruit fly cause the insect to grow structurally accurate fly eyes. And it is a deep homology that genetically connects keen, light-responsive vision in a hawk to photosensitivity in green algae. Deep homology traces our molecular lineage to our most ancient common ancestors. It proves that all living organisms, including plants, are long-lost relatives.
    Today, the specific nature/nurture controversy that so dominated the academic scene in the 1980s is something of a historical footnote. Advances in molecular biology, genetics, and neuroscience have shifted the debate away from
whether
there’s a genetic basis for behavior and toward a more nuanced conversation about how genes, culture, and environment
interact
. This has given rise to a burgeoning new field called “epigenetics.” Among other things, epigenetics considers how infection, toxins, food, other organisms, and even cultural practices can turn genes on and off to alter an animal’s development.
    Think about what that means. Evolution doesn’t just happen over huge numbers of generations or millions of years. It can happen to you or me, or any animal, within our own lifetimes. Amazingly, epigenetic changes to our DNA mean that the genes we pass on to our children can differ from the ones we inherited. Epigenetics and deep homology are two sides of the evolutionary coin. Epigenetics helps explain rapid evolutionary changes and highlights the role environments can play in genetichealth. Deep homology reminds us of our ancient origins and the glacial pace at which much evolutionary change occurs.
    This stunning new perspective has started to change many fields, including biology, medicine, and psychology. When it was published in 2008,
Your Inner Fish
—Neil Shubin’s illuminating journey through our shared anatomy with ancient life forms—ignited excitement about the power of comparative biology to inspire new ideas in modern medicine. Shubin, a paleontologist and biologist at the University of Chicago, joins Randolph Nesse, George Williams, Peter Gluckman, and Stephen Stearns in advancing a new field of evolutionary medicine in their books
Why We Get Sick, The Principles of Evolutionary Medicine
, and
Evolution in Health and Disease
. Other influential scientists who’ve blazed