Could the Orangutan Be Our Closest Relative? New Scientist

It is accepted without question that the closest relatives to humans are two chimpanzee species - the common chimp and the bonobo. But two scientists publishing in the Journal of Biogeography this week argue that the DNA evidence for that conclusion is flawed and that, based on traditional taxonomy, orangutans are clearly closer to us than chimps. Their paper leads to an Editorial in the magazine entitled In praise of scientific heresy, which states in part: "Ideas that mainstream opinion 'knows' to be wrong occasionally turn out to be right. The insights of Galileo, Stan Prusiner - who discovered prions - and many others were once denounced as heresy." Ironically, the same issue, carries AIDS denial: A lethal delusion, with a cheap shot about Professor Henry Bauer being a leading authority on the existence of the Loch Ness monster without saying a word about the findings of his HIV/AIDS work.