The Human Factor
To pin down the essential differences between the minds of apes and humans, the institute's researchers are also trying to identify what we have in common. Primatologists are studying culture--once thought to be exclusive to humans--among wild chimps in Africa. Psychologists are watching the baby chimps at the Leipzig Zoo and their drooling human counterparts in town. "For the first 10 months you can't tell the difference between chimps and humans," Paabo says. "Then the human children realize that behind your eyes is something that they can direct. That there are other people like me." Perhaps those children, too, will someday ask what makes a human human.
In Short
"Chimps and humans are so similar."
BORN April 20, 1955, Stockholm
FAMILY Twelve people, a dog, and a cat, in a shared house in Leipzig
EDUCATION Ph.D. in molecular immunology, 1986, University of Uppsala
LANGUAGES Fluent in Swedish, German, English. "It's a little bit easier for me to write in English and in German--it depends on the subject."
HOBBIES Rock climbing. He practices on a climbing wall in his institute's new building.
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