In Leipzig, Germany, at the Max Plank Research Institute where Svante Pääbo is a professor today, you are greeted by a climbing wall directly inside the entrance.
It is Svante who saw to it that it was built right there.
Until a few years ago, when he had children himself, he often climbed the wall.
- It's a good job that requires you to be totally focused, he says.
The climbing wall is like a symbol of Svante and his life.
His friends describe him as an adventurer who still has the child in him, a social phenomenon who inspires everyone around him to perform at their best.
The secret family
Today, Svante Pääbo is a super celebrity in the world of science, but his life had a more complicated start.
- We were the secret family, me and mother Karin.
Dad only came to visit us in Bagarmossen on Saturdays, says Svante.
Svante's father Sune Bergström, who also received the Nobel Prize, had another official family in Östermalm in Stockholm.
There was also a son there, Rurik.
Svante knew Rurik but Rurik knew nothing about Svante.
Not until both brothers were 50 did the truth come out.
Runestones, mummies and Neanderthals
Svante's mother Karin made sure that the young Svante was allowed to cultivate his interest in human history.
Together they visited rune stones in Sweden and pyramids in Egypt.
During his studies in Uppsala, Svante began work on developing analysis methods for ancient DNA.
In 1996 he became the first in the world to extract DNA from our extinct relative the Neanderthal, and in 2010 the entire Neanderthal genome was mapped.
The biggest question unanswered
Today, Svante Pääbo is 67 years old but has no plans to stop working, because one question, the biggest according to him, is still unanswered.
-Why was it us homo sapiens who spread all over the world and not them, the Neanderthals?
He hopes to find the answer by comparing the Neanderthals' genetic mass with ours.
See more about the Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics and medicine in the World of Science on SVT2 on Monday 5 December 20:00, or the entire series Nobel 2022: The portraits whenever you want on SVTplay.