Every year, Science chooses one fantastic discovery as its Breakthrough of the Year.
Before we get to it, here are a few of the runners-up.
DNA from fossils has transformed what we know about evolution.
Now, scientists are digging up DNA from an entirely different place: the soil itself.
In Spain, DNA extracted from a cave floor revealed that three groups of Neanderthals had once occupied it— and only one remained at the end of the last Ice Age.
In a cave in the country of Georgia, scientists found a female genome from a previously unknown line of Neanderthals.
And in another cave in northern Mexico, 12,000-year-old DNA from four black bears revealed that their descendants migrated to Alaska as the climate warmed.
New techniques that sift nuclear DNA from ancient soil made these findings possible.
As the method spreads expect many more answers to questions about Earth's ancient past.
NASA's InSight spacecraft is bringing the interior of Mars into focus like never before.
