Harvard Prof Isn't Recruiting Neanderthal Moms

Oh, good. This story isn't true. There isn't actually a Harvard professor who wants to recruit a woman to bear a Neanderthal child from an embryo constructed, using stem-cell and cloning technology, from Neanderthal bone DNA. Turns out there was some translation error in the account of his interview with a German magazine. And the professor is upset. He's not actually proposing to clone a Neanderthal baby; he only thinks the issue should be up for discussion. For several years.
Oh, good.

Shaking the Family Tree, Neanderthal Edition

The revelations from genetics about the past of our species continue to amaze me. This study from PLOS Genetics, for example, reveals evidence that supports the hypothesis that the subset of humans who left Africa may have continued to mate with Neanderthals until as recently as 47,000 years ago. There's more detail about related studies in this article from Science News--including mention of the fact that Neanderthal DNA is even more prevalent in Asian and South American populations than in European.