
NEARLY 40,000 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARING from the planet, Neanderthals are having a moment. In recent years, tantalizing new evidence suggests that our primitive, heavy-browed cousins were chefs, jewelry-makers and painters. And what we are learning from the genetic clues they left behind-and the promise of what those clues will tell us about ourselves in the years ahead-won Swedish paleo-geneticist Svante Pääbo the 2022 Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology this fall.
The most recent discoveries, un-earthed in a Siberian cave, show why scientists are so excited. By Neanderthal standards, the Chagyrskaya Cave qualified as luxury housing. The two-chambered, cliffside cavity in Southern Siberia's Altai Mountains boasted a three-story-high limestone entrance overlooking a vast, green river valley, from which residents could easily have spotted herds of migrating bison, horses, reindeer and other tasty game, or just reveled in the cave's King of the World views. "It's the perfect place," says Bence Viola, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto, who studies ancient humans.
Which is why Viola, a jovial, thirty-something Hungarian-born scientist who describes field work as "camping with friends," wasn't surprised when a longtime Russian collaborator pulled a fossilized mandible in a plastic bag out of his shirt pocket one vodka-fueled evening at a conference in 2010, and boisterously declared: "I have a surprise for you!" Viola was able to confirm by sight that the remarkably well-preserved fossil, dug out of the recently discovered cave's entrance, had come from a Neanderthal.
Bu hikaye Newsweek Europe dergisinin January 06 - 13, 2023 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Newsweek Europe dergisinin January 06 - 13, 2023 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap

A Mammoth Breakthrough
A biotech team has created a “woolly mouse,” marking a step forward in the quest to revive the long-extinct species

Ultra-Precision Manufacturing for Tomorrow's Batteries
When it comes to batteries, HYTC have emerged as the first-choice battery manufacturing partner in everything from personal electronics to electric vehicles.

Windward Roads Infrastructure: Paving Sint Maarten's Future with Innovation & Resilience
Building Resilience and Innovation in Caribbean Infrastructure

Flowone Leads in Bellows Seal Valves
Flowone is looking to international markets to continue its expansion, bringing advanced valves and precision engineering at remarkably competitive prices.

War of Words
JD Vance took Europe by surprise when he deemed a \"retreat\" of free speech one of the biggest threats to the continent. Newsweek explores freedom of expression there and in the U.S.

FOR Duty, FOR Love
At an age when many people would be retired, QUEEN CAMILLA is still focused on her royal responsibilities. Newsweek goes behind the scenes to examine her work and its impact

Not Just for the Taste of It
How Diet Coke, once a favorite of “It” girls, has become the new symbol of masculinity

Dylan Mulvaney
WHEN SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER DYLAN MULVANEY, FAMOUS FOR CHRONIcling her gender transition online in \"365 Days of Girlhood,\" posted a sponsored video promoting Bud Light, it quickly went viral, but not necessarily in a good way.

From Shadows to Sight
A revolutionary gene therapy has given blind children with a rare eye disorder the ability to see

Building the Future: How FT Develepment is redefining Sint Maarten
In Sint Maarten, where turquoise waters meet golden sands, a quiet transformation is reshaping the island's future. Frank and Alexia Teboul, founders and directors of FT Development, are leading this change, blending resilience, ambition, and innovation. For investors, their work—and the island they call home—offers an invitation to imagine the possibilities.