It is of course almost impossible to justify the title: most people will go for developments in physics or astronomy, but I think it is fair to look for something that illuminates the nature of us humans. DNA is a plausible choice but, however important it is, it does not differentiate us very much from other animal species: even the most unlikely species, the fruit fly, shares 60% of our DNA.
What about Evolution? However much I revere it, it is more of an idea than a discovery, and I would be happy to rank it as the most important idea since Genesis.
Now, what distinguishes us from other species more than anything else is our capacity to learn, our intelligence. Although dogs, pigs, and dolphins, for instance, are admirable for their capacity for learning, this is probably not quantifiable as even a 1% of our own.
Learning is what has made us the most successful and the most dangerous species in the animal kingdom: our monarchs and politicians have surely caused more deaths in the twentieth century alone than all the lions, tigers, vipers and so on in all the previous millennia. So, next time you see a politician do not put your head in his mouth unless you want to stop him or her to utter alternative facts.
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