Mummies fascinate us and it's no wonder. They exist as a real time capsule showing us how people lived, died and evolved over thousands of years.

30 years after his discovery, many secrets about the Iceman have been solved: we now know how and where he lived, how he died, what his last meal was, what diseases and parasites plagued him. But that's not all, thanks to new medical and molecular biological technologies, Ötzi and other mummified remains may soon help us better understand pathogens and their evolution - opening up new therapeutic methods for modern medicine. Furthermore, paleogenetic studies of mummies as well as human skeletal remains from different geographical areas of origin and time periods provide valuable information about the history and migration of populations.