• Question: Thank u so much 4 answering all my questions in the class chat, I really appreciate, I was wondering if it was true that humans share 50% DNA with bananas, if so is there any other things/ creations that we share DNA with and do u reckon it could be possible that there is life on other planets we could make contact with them. Thanks Lily :D

    Asked by Lily to Frank on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Frank Longford

      Frank Longford answered on 16 Mar 2015:


      First of all, you’re very welcome – I enjoyed answering your questions they were very thoughtful :).

      Yes, it is true that our DNA is around 50% the same as banana DNA. Crazy eh? Well, actually maybe not – around 36% of our DNA is the same as fruit fly DNA and about 98% of our DNA is the same as chimpanzee DNA. In fact every living thing on this planet shares some part of it’s DNA with other living beings.

      Strands of DNA are made up of sections called “genes”. When we say “share 50% of DNA” what we actually mean is that 50% of the genes in each species’ DNA are the same. Each gene is like an instruction that tells our cells how to behave. So actually our cells do 50% of the same things that bananas do!

      There could be life on other planets for sure but that doesn’t mean that life will resemble us in any way. Other lifeforms may not have any DNA – in fact some viruses have RNA, which is simpler than DNA. Actually viruses are very strange because in some ways they are alive and dead at the same time. Of course that all depends on what we call “being alive”, but that’s a whole other question that we could go on forever (and people have for centuries) trying to answer.

      Scientists have been trying to contact other lifeforms in space for quite a long time. The simplest way to do so is to send out radio signals into space saying “Hello” and waiting for a response. If there are aliens as advanced as us then they would be able to detect these signals. So far there’s been no response… But the universe is around 91 billion light years wide so it would take 91 billion years for radio signals (which travel at the speed of light) to go from one side to the other. If there are aliens out there then its very likely that they have no idea we are here.

Comments