Scientists fix bugs in our understanding of evolution

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Caption: Sequence alignment according to the new phylogeny-aware method. Credit: Nick Goldman EMBL-EBI
Caption: Sequence alignment according to the new, phylogeny-aware method. Credit: Nick Goldman, EMBL-EBI

A new computational tool allows the most accurate insights into evolution ever
What makes a human different from a chimp? Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute [EMBL-EBI] have come one important step closer to answering such evolutionary questions correctly. In the current issue of Science they uncover systematic errors in existing methods that compare genetic sequences of different species to learn about their evolutionary relationships.


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