If you've been following the science news here for the past few years, you will have witnessed a field being entirely revolutionized by new approaches. It may not be apparent from any individual article, but the history of all of humanity—how it arose in Africa and spread throughout the world—has been completely rewritten. The key change? Our ability to sequence genomes, ancient and modern.
In the Americas, the Clovis people and Kennewick man have yielded their secrets. In Europe and Asia, we've found evidence that Neanderthals contributed genes to modern humans and found that a second group of pre-modern humans (the Denisovans) shared the continent with both of them. There have even been hints that Australia's humans weren't as isolated as we've thought.
Migrations, matings, and complicated histories abound in humanity's story, but it's hard to get a clear sense of the big picture of our collective past from scattered news stories. If it's a topic that interests you, though, you're in luck: PBS is tackling it in a series of programs called "First Peoples," with the first episode airing tonight.
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