As slight as these finds are, scientists know quite a bit about these ancient hominins. In 2010, a team of scientists isolated and sequenced DNA from that finger bone fragment and discovered that it belonged to a young girl of an extinct Homo species described as Denisovan—after the Denisova cave in Siberia where the remains were found.

Unfortunately, the sequencing wasn’t reliable enough to do further studies. ScienceNOW explains:

But these genomes were too low quality to produce a reliable catalog of differences. Part of the problem was that ancient DNA is fragmentary, and most of it breaks down into single strands after it is extracted from bone.

Enter Matthias Meyer, a postdoc from Germany who developed a new way of sequencing. His novel technique splits the DNA double helix so that each of its two strands can be used for sequencing. This allowed the same team of scientists to sequence every position in the Denisovan genome about 30 times over ensuring that each nucleotide was in the correct spot.

The technique provides 99.9% accuracy—a quality similar to genomes that have been determined from present-day humans!

The much-improved genome furthers our understanding of the 50,000 year-old individual and population. The young girl had brown hair, eyes and skin and the genetic variation of Denisovans was extremely low—suggesting their population was never very large for long periods of time.

In addition, studies of the genome enhance our comprehension of human evolution. They describe the divergence between Denisovans and modern-day humans and confirm that modern populations from the islands of southeastern Asia (like Papua New Guinea) share genes with the Denisovans.

“This research will help determine how it was that modern human populations came to expand dramatically in size as well as cultural complexity while archaic humans eventually dwindled in numbers and became physically extinct,” says study co-author Svante Pääbo.

The findings were published last week in Science.

Image: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Despite being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, we were able to catch incredible glimpses of the solar eclipse this week through photos throughout the web.

DNA sequencing started the year off right. Popular Science reported that “For the First Time, DNA Sequencing Technology Saves A Child’s Life.” Doctors, desperate to find the cause of a boy’s severe illness, sequenced his genes, discovered a mutation and were able to prescribe a treatment that appears to be working. A new machine could make this practice more common. An article in the New York Times this week described a more affordable sequencing machine. At $50,000, the Personal Genome Machine is significantly less than standard machines and “could expand the use of DNA sequencing from specialized centers to smaller university and industrial labs, and into hospitals and doctors’ offices.”

What is causing birds to fall out of the sky and fish to die from Arkansas to Maryland and Brazil to Sweden? Cold weather? Hail storms? Fireworks? The end of the world? There’s been much hype and speculation, but scientists don’t appear to be worried. The Academy’s own Jack Dumbacher is getting samples from the southern occurrences—he’s planning on testing the corpses for viruses. You can track these deaths yourself through Google maps or the US Geological Survey.

Finally, after topping the science news headlines last year, oil in the Gulf reappeared this week, at least on news sites. Have bacteria consumed nearly all of the methane from the spill? A study published in Science this week suggests that’s the case. Ed Yong finds a lot of support for the paper in his blog on Discover; Samantha Joye tells Science News, “Just because you can’t find methane in the spot where you lowered your [instruments] doesn’t mean there’s no methane out there somewhere.”

Also, the president’s oil spill commission released the first chapter of its report this week. (The entire report will be available next week.) An excerpt from the chapter in Science Insider reports that the blame for the disaster can be shared among the companies responsible for the well.

Most of the mistakes and oversights at Macondo can be traced back to a single overarching failure—a failure of management.

And sadly, this may not be an unusual event, according to the New York Times:

The commission warned that without major changes, another such accident was likely.

If you want a front seat on a Gulf of Mexico recovery expedition, follow Sylvia Earle and others on National Geographic News Watch this month.

What science news did you dive into this week? Share with us!

Image by Brydzo/Wikimedia