The Event Horizon Telescope revealed one of the darkest and most elusive phenomena in the known universe.

Scientists have recovered the first ancient human DNA from cave sediments lacking human skeletal remains.

The observation of an elusive sub-atomic particle known as the Higgs boson has been heralded by the journal Science as the most important scientific discovery of 2012. This particle, which was first hypothesized to exist more than 40 years ago, holds the key to explaining how other elementary particles such as electrons and quarks (those that aren’t made up of smaller particles) get their mass.

Researchers have now described the complete sequence of the Denisovan genome, shedding light on the relationships between these archaic humans, who were closely related to Neandertals, and modern humans.

The research team, led by Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, generated a list of recent changes in the human genome that occurred after modern humans diverged from the Denisovans. This list will help scientists understand what sets modern humans apart from the Denisovans and Neandertals.