The Science Of Being Surprised

There is something worth honoring in the fact that the Mal’ta genome surprised the researchers who analyzed it.

Science at its best is not the confirmation of what we already expect.

It is the disruption of expectation — the encounter with a reality that is more complex, more interesting, or more strange than the models we carry into the laboratory.

The Ancient North Eurasian ancestry in the Mal’ta genome was not predicted by the dominant models of Native American origins that preceded the discovery.

It was found — genuinely found, in the sense of being encountered rather than anticipated.