My oh my, what a Nobel guy

Nobel week officially kicked off yesterday, with the Prize in Physiology or Medicine being awarded to Sweden-born geneticist Svante Pääbo for his discoveries related to the genomes of extinct human groups. (Is it just us, or does he look exactly like Bill Nye?☝️)

🧬 More deets: The Prize committee said Pääbo completed a task in 2010 that was previously thought to be impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of early humans, using the degraded and contaminated genetic material available to him.

• Pääbo ultimately discovered Neanderthals are distinct from both modern-day humans and chimpanzees – and that some of their DNA was passed on to us through interbreeding ~70,000 years ago.
• He also discovered a previously unknown human relative called the Denisovans in 2012, after analyzing a 40,000-year-old bone fragment.

👀 Looking ahead… Nobel Prizes will continue to be awarded this upcoming week, with the Peace Prize set for Friday and the final award (in Economics) scheduled for next Monday.

+In the know: This year, each winner will receive a cash prize of ~$900,000 after exchange rates.