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A scientist used 172 books and 262,000 pages to prove that every human is nearly identical in this crazy cool TED talk

Riccardo Sabatini Ted Talk human genomes
Riccardo Sabatini TED

We might look, act and feel very different from one another. But when it comes to our genetic makeup, every person on the planet is nearly identical.

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To prove this, scientist Riccardo Sabatini took the genome of his friend Craig and printed his genetic code, letter by letter, into a series of physical books.

Our genomes are made of DNA, and within DNA there are four bases: adenine ("A"), cytosine ("C"), guanine ("G"), and thymine ("T"). Human genomes contain more than 3 billion of these letters and the sequences they're in determine a lot about us, from eye color to which diseases we'll develop.

Given that there are so many letters in the human genome, it took Sabatini 172 books and 262,000 pages to print Craig's entire genetic makeup. He wheeled out all the books on stage during a Ted talk in February. All of the books combined weighed about 1,000 pounds.

Riccardo Sabatini Ted Talk human genomes
Riccardo Sabatini gives a TED talk on the human genome TED

"For the first time in history, this is the genome of a specific human, printed page-by-page, letter-by-letter: 262,000 pages of information," Sabatini told the audience. "This is the visual perception of what is the code of life ..millions of letters. And they apparently make sense. Let's get to a specific part [and read it]."

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Sabatini picked up a book and began to flip through the pages. 

"AAG, AAT, ATA," he read.

While that sounds like nonsense, Sabatini explained that those 9 letters are actually the sequence that determined the color of Craig's eyes.

Riccardo Sabatini Ted Talk human genomes
Riccardo Sabatini reads a portion of the 172 books that determines which eye color the subject will have. TED

He picked up another book and flipped the pages again.

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"ATT, CTT, GATT," he read.

"This human is lucky, because if you miss just two letters in this position — two letters of our three billion — he will be condemned to a terrible disease: cystic fibrosis. We have no cure for it, we don't know how to solve it, and it's just two letters of difference from what we are."

Riccardo Sabatini Ted Talk human genomes
Riccardo Sabatini reads a part of the printed human genome that determines whether or not someone has Cystic Fibrosis. TED

Perhaps more startling is learning how very few of these letters and sequences give us our individual characteristics. Out of the 172 books, Sabatini says that just half of one book is what makes one person different from another. The other 171.5 books have identical codes.

"Every one of you -- what makes me, me and you, you -- is just about five million of these, half a book," Sabatini said. "For the rest, we are all absolutely identical. Five hundred pages is the miracle of life that you are. The rest, we all share it. So think about that again when we think that we are different. This is the amount that we share."

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Here's Sabatini's full Ted Talk, below: 

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