In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo
By Bruce Bower, 14:16 PM February 20, 2014
The hottest thing in human evolution studies right now is DNA extracted from fossils of Neandertals and other long-gone populations. Pääbo, the dean of ancient-gene research, explains in his book how it all began when he bought a piece of calf liver at a supermarket in 1981.
In those days, DNA had been successfully pulled only from living animals. Pääbo modified the methods to extract genetic material from the dead calf’s liver, which had been heated to make it hard and dry like an Egyptia...
Source URL: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/neanderthal-man?mode=archive&context=188098