European mummies found in China, and new discoveries on the origin of dogs

A story published this week reports that Chinese archaeologists have found nearly-intact mummies of people who lived in a desolate desert in Northwestern China nearly 4,000 years ago. But they were not Chinese. DNA evidence from these long dead people shows that they were in fact of European descent. Also this week, geneticists announced that man’s best friend split from the wolves about 15,000 years ago in the Middle East.

New York Times Science reporter Nicholas Wade, author of “The Faith Instinct”, reported on both these stories and he joins us now. Also joining us is Alexandra Horowitz, who runs the Dog Cognition lab at Barnard College and is the author of “Inside of a dog: What dogs see, smell and know”. She is trying to find out if dogs really have feelings, and why they behave the way they do.