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Researchers sequencing Neandertal DNA have concluded that between 1 and 4 percent of the DNA of people today who live outside Africa came from Neandertals, the result of interbreeding between Neandertals and early modern humans.

A team of scientists led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig pieced together the first draft of the sequence--which represents about 60 percent of the entire genome--using DNA obtained from three Neandertal bones that come from Vindija cave in Croatia and are more than 38,000 years old. The researchers detail their analysis of the sequence in the May 7 Science.

At a test in the New Mexico desert this morning, NASA carried off what it called a successful test of a launch abort system for Orion, the crew capsule designed to return astronauts to orbit and beyond after the space shuttle retires this year or next. The system, which would rocket the crew to safety in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during ascent, roared into the sky at 9:00 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time from White Sands Missile Range. A dummy crew capsule then detached and parachuted back to Earth about two minutes later. [More]

Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth could never wash away the guilt of murder from her hands, but research has shown that the simple act of hand washing--or even using a wipe--can in fact help people clean their conscience of dirty deeds . A new study, published online May 6 in Science , reveals the power of hand washing to ease people's minds about even mundane decisions . [More]

Antarctica is nature's forensic freezer, preserving records of the past in layers of largely unsullied ice and snow that scientists have dug up to explore past geologic and atmospheric conditions. The southernmost continent has also proved an ideal hunting ground for meteorites, which stand out atop ice sheets and snowfields and tend to undergo little weathering and terrestrial contamination after arrival. [More]

Dear EarthTalk: My husband and I want to start a garden this year. I really want to make compost from leftover food scraps and yard materials. He says it will attract unwanted animals, and refuses to agree to it. Is he right? If so, how do we deal with that issue in a green-friendly, non-lethal way? --Carmen Veurink, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The stark institutional isolation prevalent in the orphanages of some countries might have mostly melted away decades ago, but many babies and young children all over the world still grow up in environments where touch and emotional engagement are lacking. Many children who have not had ample physical and emotional attention are at higher risk for behavioral, emotional and social problems as they grow up.  [More]