The story of Pääbo's mission to answer the question: "What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives?" The story begins with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminates in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009. Learn how Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pääbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species' interactions. Read more...
Abstract: The story of Pääbo's mission to answer the question: "What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives?" The story begins with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminates in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009. Learn how Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pääbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species' interactions
