'authors of a new study published in Science Advances have pinpointed a genetic variant that may have helped this population adapt to life at extraordinary heights. Tibetans in the Himalayas possess a different mutation in the same gene, suggesting both groups independently evolved similar adaptations to high-altitude living. The finding demonstrates “how evolution can sometimes favor common solutions to a common problem,” says Graham Scott, a physiologist at McMaster University who wasn’t involved in the study.'