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Agony aunt and 'humanzee' Carole Jahme prepares to take audiences on an evolutionary journey in her new show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe I have devised a comic science show to mark the International Year of Biodiversity 2010, Carole Jahme Is Bio-diverse!, which premieres at this year's Edinburgh Festival. I'm taking on the role of a monkey-human hybrid in a bid to help audiences get in touch with their inner apes and understand what makes us who we are. We proudly declared ourselves Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man", and defined mankind with the phrase, "Man the tool-maker". Then it was discovered that chimps also make and use tools to hunt for food. Unabashed, we instead crowed about what we presumed was our lineage's uniquely masterful ability to harness and control fire. But research on the newly discovered primate species Homo floresiensis – commonly known as "the Hobbit" – has shown that this ape-man creature, who is anatomically closer to chimps than to us, adeptly used fire to cook food. When science forces us to compare ourselves to other primates, we prefer to separate ourselves from our cousins with an emphasis on mankind's evolved articulation. "Man the talker", we shout now. But recent genetic research on the FOXP2 gene – a dominant gene for language found on chromosome seven – has revealed that Neanderthals shared this gene with us. Traditionally we have portrayed the Neanderthal as an inferior prototype of ourselves; the Caliban of pre-history. Yet here is genetic evidence showing that Neanderthals were as linguistically sophisticated as we are. Genetics has also revealed that we bred with them and those of us of European descent carry at least 4% Neanderthal genes. Not only were Neanderthals gossiping to us over the cave wall 24,000 years ago, but they were silver-tongued enough to guarantee that a little of them lived on in us. Analysis of chimp and human DNA has revealed how we separated from ancestral apes approximately 10m years ago. But the parallel evolving species of early ape-men and archaic apes continued to breed with each other for at least another 4m years. Not only are we modern Westerners the product of hybridised Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, we are also the progeny of ancestral humans and ancestral chimps. One could even go so far as to suggest that we are in fact a type of evolved "humanzee". A recent survey has highlighted that, of the 634 species of primate, 300 are endangered and 114 are imminently threatened with extinction. Since 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, I'm using the medium of theatre to highlight the point. I present Carole Jahme Is Bio-diverse! as a humanzee, describing the problems of growing up as a hybrid with a chimp for a dad and a Homo sapiens for a mum. I'll be taking audiences on a comedic yet authentic simian journey to help them get in touch with the ape inside themselves, while reflecting upon what it might be like to belong to the only primate species left. Bio-genetic engineering is bravely taking us into a new world where approximated reconstructions of creatures that have gone before will be brought back to life. A chicken with teeth in place of a beak has already been bred this way to illustrate how ancestral birds had teeth before evolving beaks. Now that both the chimp and human genome have been mapped, advanced embryological technology will soon see the laboratory giving birth to a creature similar to the Hobbit. After 12,000 years this ape-man species might very well walk again. But when humanzee-like primates are breathing once more, what will we do with them? Put them in zoos? Richard Dawkins has speculated that the creation of a humanzee or the discovery of a primate cryptid "would change everything." According to Dawkins, if a yeti or one of the other anecdotal bipedal ape-men is ever scientifically validated, our self-image would implode. Homo sapiens are good at manipulating their environment and typically we do not leave space for others. Today's global deforestation and loss of biodiversity is stark evidence of this. It is imperative to save what we have rather than relying on future bio-engineering to create laboratory freaks of nature – however fascinating they may be. Discovery of our evolved natures can only be achieved by placing our lineage within the greater, comparative context of the order of primates. But with the loss of our closest surviving species, some of them barely hanging on with their opposable thumbs, knowledge of our rightful place will be lost for good and King Kong will become mightier in our minds as we attempt to fill our concrete emptiness. Support the International Year of Biodiversity, fight to preserve what's left and, most importantly, come to the Edinburgh Fringe to see my show.
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