Introduction“We cannot despair of humanity, for we ourselves are human beings.” (Albert Einstein) There is no doubt that we are human beings as Einstein stated, but with new genetic research what it means to be a human being is constantly evolving. One aspect of how we are evolving our understanding of ourselves as humans is the debated question of whether or not Homo Neanderthalensis contributed genetic material to the human genome. There are only three sides to the debate; Neanderthals left no genetic material in modern humans, only Europeans came directly from Neanderthals, and finally, Neanderthals contributed a minimal amount of genetic material to the entire human being. (Krings, Stone 1997) Each of these three sides has some scientific evidence for support and with new techniques for recovering DNA from the Neanderthal fossil each side is one nucleotide away from solving the puzzle of whether a modern human you carry genetic material from the extinct species Homo Neanderthalensis.Why it mattersIt matters because to fully understand ourselves we must understand the parts that make us human. And whether or not Neanderthals contributed to our gene pool is only part of this understanding. If Neanderthals contributed, that paves the way for further research into what they contributed, such as language, skin color, and more. There is also a curiosity factor among humans who want to know everything about themselves and the world around us. And just knowing the possibility that humans carry the DNA of an extinct species pushes that curiosity beyond the crazy. Finally it is important that the soul of human beings knows that we directly or indirectly wiped out the Neanderthals, but we were friendly enough to deny...... middle of paper ...... 193.2593 (2007): 28- 32. McKie, Robin. "Why did Neanderthals become extinct?" The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 2 June 2013. Web. 5 December 2013. .Klein, Richard G. "Where the Neanderthals?" Science 299.5612 (2003): 1525-1527.Höss, Matthias. "Ancient DNA: Neanderthal population genetics". Nature 404.6777 (2000): 453-454. Green, Richard E., et al. “Analysis of One Million Base Pairs of Neanderthal DNA.” Nature 444.7117 (2006): 330-336. Currat, Mathias and Laurent Excoffier. “Strong reproductive isolation between humans and Neanderthals inferred from observed patterns of introgression.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.37 (2011): 15129-15134. Krings, Matthias, et al. "Neanderthal DNA sequences and the origin of modern humans". cell 90.1 (1997): 19-30.