French scientists from the University of Rouen discovered a new strain of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2009. According to them, it is transmitted to humans from gorillas. This is the first recorded case of HIV infection from primates, with the exception of chimpanzees – three known types of immunodeficiency virus have passed to humans from these primates. The virus was detected in a French-born woman living in Cameroon. She did not eat monkey meat, so scientists believe that the infection occurred sexually from another person.

Scientists from the Russian Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences claim that ancient viruses made a human from an ancient hominid. "Genes, as can already be argued, are similar in humans and monkeys, they secrete ordinary proteins, but viruses change their ratio, distribution and the time spent on it," explained Vyacheslav Tarantula, deputy director of the Institute. Almost simultaneously with the Russians, the Americans voiced their theory of the transformation of monkeys into Homo sapiens. According to biologists and plastic surgery specialists from the University of Pennsylvania, they managed to discover a single genetic mutation, thanks to which the earliest human ancestors began to differ from their ape-like predecessors. In fact, we are talking about the moment of a person's birth on planet Earth. This mutation, scientists say, occurred about 2.4 million years ago in a gene that controls the development of jaw muscles and in modern humans is called MYH16. As a result of this seemingly small change in the genome, the jaw muscles of our ancestors began to weaken, which forced the unfortunate to change their habits, menus, and look for the first tools. They had to adapt to the new features of the body, learn how to cook food, somehow process it. It was the change in the jaw muscles, which, having become less powerful, exerted less pressure on the skull, provided a different structure, allowing a much larger brain to develop, this powerful "computer" is serviced by well-developed sensory organs. As a result, the ape-like creature took a stick in its paws, and decided not to let it out of them anymore. This may explain the fact that the pathways leading from the brain to the spinal cord in humans intersect, so that the right hemisphere controls the left half of the body, and the left – the right. But the rest of the monkeys were deprived of such a mutation and still have powerful jaws and a weak brain relative to humans. In human cubs, the sutures connecting the bones of the skull can move apart as they grow and there are fontanelles – areas of the brain that are not covered by bone. With age, the fontanelles overgrow, and when the brain reaches a normal size, the size of the skull no longer increases. However, brain growth continues and many modern children's fontanelles do not overgrow for a long time. The biblical story about the curse of Eve "in sickness you will give birth to children" goes back to the ancient "divine" explanation of why women give birth with pain. Monkeys and humans remained omnivores, not specializing in any kind of food, so their dental system is close to the original type, which was formed even in the ancient beast-toothed lizards – reptiles. Humans have color binocular vision, like monkeys. Great apes lived in a fairly constant climate and did not have a clearly defined breeding season, so women developed a menstrual cycle lasting 28 days, that is, conception is possible 13 times a year, the cycle is under the control of the endocrine system.

The mutation occurred only in one population of ancient hominids, the rest of the individuals from this population most likely died. The death may have occurred due to some disease, infection, radiation, infection, etc., which led to a significant reduction in the population of ancient hominids, the remaining (conditional Adam and Eve) were able to survive weakened and give offspring with genetically modified muscles of the cheekbones (the zygomatic arch is the legacy of the beast-toothed lizards), these genes turned out to be dominant by mating with close relatives from other populations, this mutation became fixed and developed further in human ancestors.

Previously, it was believed that the mystery is in those genes that are different in humans and monkeys, in 2006, even a section of the genome was discovered that changed the most in humans, but this did not clarify. It is possible that the differences between a monkey and a man lie not only in different genes, but also in the same ones. Ralph Hagood and his colleagues from Duke University were able to prove the correctness of this guess. Scientists analyzed 6280 genes that are present in humans, chimpanzees and macaques. It turned out that in 575 human genes, many of which were associated with brain function and, more surprisingly, nutrition, promoters have strong differences from their counterparts in monkeys. Promoters are silent genes that, under favorable conditions, perform a regulatory function, that is, they direct the work of other genes. Promoters, if necessary, produce proteins, which in turn affect the work of other genes. Scientists considered this a sign of positive evolutionary selection, which helped us become who we are. Interestingly, the sections of DNA that most strongly distinguish a monkey from a human are associated with brain function and nutrition. More than 100 genes from 575 distinct sites are associated with the metabolism of carbohydrates, and especially glucose. Heywood believes that once a person received energy for brain development due to changes in the diet – the transition from fruits to tubers and roots.

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