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The grasslands, glaciers and snow-capped peaks of the Tibetan Plateau are breathtaking, but the vast expanse of Central Asia is also one of the harshest environments on Earth.

When I traveled to the plateau three decades ago, my head was pounding and I became sluggish from altitude sickness.

Archaeologists have long believed that the Tibetan Plateau – more than 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) above sea level – was one of the last places on the planet to be inhabited.

But new research shows that a mysterious species of ancient man was able to thrive on the so-called roof of the world long before Homo sapiens, our own species, arrived on the scene.

Researchers first identified Denisovans in 2010 using DNA sequences extracted from a rare small finger bone fragment found in Siberia.

Now the Baishiya karst cave, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, helps answer many questions about who the Denisovans were.

Archaeologists have examined a jaw and rib bone found in the cave, along with thousands of animal bone fragments found during excavations in 2018 and 2019.

The analysis sheds light on how extinct humans thrived in the middle of the Ice Age for more than 100,000 years.

With the return of the Chang’e-6 lunar mission on June 25, the Chinese government has something no other human has encountered – rocks and soil from the far side of the moon.

China’s National Space Administration has said it will once again share its lunar samples with scientists around the world – following the precedent NASA set after the Apollo missions.

But a US law known as the Wolff Amendment, which prohibits NASA from using government funds for bilateral cooperation with China or its agencies without authorization from Congress or the FBI, could prevent US access to the samples.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN this week that the federal agency is working to ensure that access to lunar soil samples does not violate the law. The results of the analysis of the samples can help scientists to look into the early days of the Moon, Earth and the Solar System.

Take a moment to marvel at what researchers say is the world’s oldest known story. Painted on a cave wall in present-day Indonesia, it depicts three people interacting with a pig.

The research team used a new technique to date the calcium carbonate crust that formed on the art to more than 50,000 years old.

The discovery is the latest rock art discovered in the region’s intriguing limestone caves, and is at least 33,000 years older than known Paleolithic sites in Europe such as Lascaux.

Some experts believe that the paintings could be a visual supplement to oral histories lost to time.

Rivers often change course as they flow. But a research team studying the Ganges, which winds its way from the Himalayas through India and Bangladesh, has found evidence of something much more dramatic in the ancient past.

From clues hidden in the mud and sand, scientists have learned that a powerful earthquake redirected the river 2,500 years ago – the first time this natural phenomenon has been discovered.

The team found sand volcanoes—a hallmark of an earthquake-affected river bed—and a large river channel that filled with mud around the same time.

If a similar earthquake struck the Ganges Delta today, more than 140 million people in the area could be affected.

Entomologist Dr. Gerard Talavera came across 10 painted female butterflies on a beach about a decade ago in French Guiana. With torn wings riddled with holes, the insects looked exhausted.

While the painted lady is a hardy long-distance traveler, with migration patterns that span thousands of miles, she usually travels overland so she can stop and rest.

Talavera, a senior researcher at the Botanical Institute of Barcelona in Spain, suspects that the butterflies crossed the Atlantic without stopping. In a new study, he and an international team have pieced together what it takes to make such an epic journey.

In other insect news, researchers have observed ants amputating the infected limbs of injured roommates.

Dig into these thought-provoking reads.

— The rotation of the Earth’s core has been slowing down for the past few decades, a recent study has confirmed. Here’s what that might mean.

— Paleontologists have found fossils of a giant swamp creature with a toilet-seat-shaped skull that may have been a top predator 40 million years before dinosaurs appeared on Earth.

— The discovery of fossilized grape seeds has revealed why you should thank the death of the dinosaurs for your glass of red wine.

– A Massachusetts woman who lost a limb after an accident in 2018 is walking and moving like anyone else now that she has a bionic leg fully connected to her brain.

— A new NASA radar image shows a small moon around an asteroid passing close to Earth.

Did you like what you read? Oh, but there’s more. Register here to get the next edition of Theory of Miracles delivered to you by CNN Space and Science writers in your inbox Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They find wonders in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.