The child of a single mother grows up dreaming about mummies. Mom鈥檚 a chemist. One day, the boy imagines, he鈥檒l be like Indiana Jones. Then the day comes. He takes Egyptology courses only to find he鈥檚 spending more time studying Egyptian grammar than Egyptian pyramids. So he pivots to medicine. And that鈥檚 just the beginning. The man who once dreamed of becoming an archaeologist goes on to launch the field of paleogenetics鈥攖he study of ancient genetic material.
That man is Svante P盲盲bo, the Swedish scientist best known for sequencing the Neanderthal genome. Last year, P盲盲bo鈥檚 discoveries earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This year, he appeared at a 黑料吃瓜资源 (CSHL) Association meeting for an intimate discussion with Jan Witowski, former director of CSHL鈥檚 Banbury Center think tank.
This isn鈥檛 just any science talk. In addition to walking us through his groundbreaking discoveries, P盲盲bo shares personal details of his upbringing. He even touches on the politics of science during the later years of the Cold War. And yes, Neanderthals too.
To date, P盲盲bo has participated in 45 CSHL events. As he says, 鈥淚鈥檝e never worked at Cold Spring Harbor, but it still feels a bit like home because I come here so regularly. It is a sort of mecca.鈥�
Here, we are proud to present Nobel laureate Svante P盲盲bo in a candid discussion with CSHL Special Advisor Jan Witowski. Press play for your front-row seat.