Top discoveries about ancient people from DNA in 2023

> [On a sense of smell:] Denisovan missense variants had a stronger response than their human orthologs, which de March and coworkers narrowed down to “odors contemporary humans perceive as spicy, balsamic, and unpleasant”. Neandertals, on the other hand, had a much lower response for the missense variants which were found in these genes.

I struggle to interpret this (not least because of the mis- prefix: does this mean incorrectly sensing? Does spicy in scent mean something that would map to food spices?) But does it mean that Denisovans would have disliked things we think of as smelling bad, far more than Neanderthals would? Would a Denisovan have bathed more for personal hygiene, or have avoided spicy food, or...? Would a Denisovan today have a strong aversion to some perfumes or colognes (the ones with woody, tobacco, musk scents)?

There is this vague sense of wonder that there were human populations with preferences that were _different_ to our own.

It’s impressive how ancient DNA maps our origins though it feels like piecing together a story with missing chapters