New Scientist is carrying this interesting summary of the most extensive study yet attempted to figure out just what, exactly, happened to the Neandertals. Their conclusion? It was the cold that did them in, and nearly did in the European human population as well. The conclusions of this study seem to indicate it took the arrival of a completely different population of humans, with advanced technologies and cultural skills posessed by neither the Neandertals nor the existing human populations, before Europe was finally "conquered."