You Carry Ancient DNA: Here’s What It Reveals about You

Museum of Science

9 Oct 2025  The Big Question

What does ancient DNA reveal about who we are today? 

Nobel Prize–winning geneticist Svante Pääbo joins the Museum of Science to explore the astonishing story written in our genomes, one that traces modern humans back through time to Neanderthals, Denisovans, and long-lost relatives who still live on in our DNA. From sequencing the first Neanderthal genome to discovering new branches of the human family tree, Pääbo’s groundbreaking work shows that human evolution was anything but a straight line.

In this in-depth conversation, Pääbo unpacks how ancient interbreeding shaped our biology, health, and migration patterns. We also discuss why his discoveries challenge what we thought we knew about being human. You'll hear about the tools of paleogenetics, the ethics of ancient DNA research, and how fragments of extinct hominin DNA can influence traits like disease resistance, pain sensitivity, and even our immune response to viruses like COVID-19.