Stefan Beck, professor of medical genomics at University College London, said: "We've been working for years to get the epigenome project off the ground and finally it's happening."

All that ended in 2012 was one of its calendar cycles, said co-author Anthony Aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University.

Standing in front of the big library on campus, her graduation photo is a bit unusual - she is all alone. That's because Xue is the only paleontology graduate from Peking University this year.