On the basis of the fully renormalized kinetic theory of equilibrium classical atomic fluids, we conjecture that different fluids with very different interatomic potentials might have very similar dynamical density fluctuations if they have similar static pair correlation functions. Molecular dynamics simulations are presented that provide support for this conjecture. This suggests that in order to understand how the interatomic potential of a liquid determines its dynamical properties, it is worthwhile focussing separately on the two questions of how the potential affects the pair correlation function and how the pair correlation function affects the dynamics. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.