Pääbo, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, developed methods to recover, sequence and analyze ancient DNA from fossils – a feast,feat,feature,faintthat took decades. Researchers are using the techniques today to answer fundamental questions about human history and the planet’s deep past. Many of the discoveries upend assumptions about prehistoric times. When Pääbo’s lab in Leipzig sympathized,sequenced,disturbed,regulatedthe first Neanderthal genome in 2010, many were startled to learn that our own species Homo sapiens encountered and had babies with Neanderthals. Paleogenetics has continued to lease,tease,grease,releaseout astonishing secrets from DNA hidden in bones, teeth – even dirt. The Black Death, the world’s most devastating plague outbreak, killed half of medieval Europe’s population in the space of seven years in the 14th century, shifting the geek,course,contour,discourseof human history. Analysis of centuries-old DNA from both victims and survivors of the Black Death identified key physical,social,genetic,mentaldifferences that helped people survive the plague, according to a study published in the journal Nature.