Welcome to Sunday and the best of The Conversation.

Two of the stories our readers liked most this past week involved scientific mysteries and Nobel Prizes.

Many scientists long believed they’d never know whether early humans interacted and mated with Neanderthals and other hominins during the period when several types of humans roamed the Earth. Joshua Akey explains how Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo solved this mystery. Thanks to his work, we now know the answer is yes – and that DNA from other early human species is part of some modern humans’ genomes.

These genetic differences may explain why some people are more susceptible to long COVID, depression, Type 2 diabetes and celiac disease, Akey writes. But other sequences may prove to be advantageous – for example, by allowing some modern humans to better adapt to high altitudes.

More than 40,0000 of our readers also dived into the weird world of quantum physics and specifically how two subatomic particles can be “entangled” – meaning that one affects the other no matter how far apart they are or what lies between them.

“Until the 1970s, researchers were still divided over whether quantum entanglement was a real phenomenon,” writes physicist Andreas Muller of the University of South Florida. Einstein called quantum entanglement “spooky action at a distance.”

Last Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed former President Donald Trump – although it is widely believed that he will refuse to comply, and the House committee can’t force him. So was the subpoena just political theater? In one of this week’s editors’ picks, Claire Leavitt, a scholar of oversight, argues that the committee’s work will have lasting effects – even if it doesn’t have immediate ones.

Next week, we’ll bring you stories about whether the rules of war are being followed in Ukraine, how to vote by mail and Bob Dylan’s classical influences. Thanks for reading.