Fun Facts The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees are 98 percent identical. Yet that 2 percent difference represents at least 15 million changes in our genome since the time of our common ancestor roughly six million years ago. Now a new computational technique has identified 49 regions that have changed particularly quickly between humans and chimps, and may have revealed at least one gene critical to the development of our larger brains. When will computers become living, sentient beings? In movies, it is commonly depicted as an abrupt, unforeseen epiphany. Ray Kurzweil has predicted (in our pages and elsewhere) that personal computers will be able to run real-time, full-up simulations of the human brain by the 2020s. But life and consciousness are matters of degree. Neuroscience case studies show how very basic ways of perceiving the self can be knocked out, slowly degrading consciousness. Research on the origins of life suggest there is a spectrum between life and not-life. By analogy, computers will start to come alive gradually, and it seems likely they have already started, almost unbeknownst to us. Where can we look for signs of the transition? Smoking tobacco killed 100 million people over the course of the 20th century. It is a leading cause of cancer, heart disease and other ailments. And it is on pace to kill one billion more this century if current trends continue. Yet, quitting smoking is hard to do for a variety of physiological and psychological reasons. New research indicates, however, that a novel drug--based on an older plant cure--aids heavy smokers in their quest to quit. In this episode, Scientific American editor George Musser explains recent research that could mean that the entire universe is 15 percent bigger and about two billion years older than previously thought. Also, Pluto expert and MIT professor Richard Binzel, a member of the Planet Definition Committee of the International Astronomical Union, discusses the status of Pluto. And amateur astronomer and Plutophile Ari Mirsky shares his thoughts. By: 
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