This year’s first Nobel laureate sequenced the DNA of Neanderthals

The "Nobel prize for medicine" is the first one to be announced. That is not its actual name. The prize is forphysiology or medicine. This year's award was on the side of health. There was only one winner and it was a man who has invented an entire scientific discipline by himself.

The study of the genomes of extinct species is called paleogenomics. The ancient members of Homo were the focus of Dr Paabo. He worked on Egyptian mummies in the 1980's. The desert climate of Egypt is good for the preservation of DNA because it began mummification about 4, 600 years ago. This was the right place to start. He was able to push back as genetic-sequencing techniques improved.