November 20, 2008


Nicolaus Copernicus’ DNA


Studying the DNA of hair found in a book and comparing it to skeletal remains has allowed scientists to positively identify Nicolaus Copernicus.

Jerzy Gassowski, an academic at an archaeology school in Poland, also says facial reconstruction of the skull his team found buried in a cathedral in Poland closely resembles existing portraits of Copernicus, whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Uh, shouldn’t that be Solar System?

posted by Deron Bauman in astronomy, history, science 

comments

7 Responses to “Nicolaus Copernicus’ DNA”

  1. Andrew Simone on November 20th, 2008 at 9:37 am

    It has been some time since my historical cosmology studies, but “universe” might be right, Deron. If I recall correctly (again, I may be wrong here), all Copernicus was trying to do was simplify the Math not debunk the Ptolemaic theories of the Solar System being the center of the universe.

  2. Daryl Scroggins on November 20th, 2008 at 10:16 am

    You’re right, Andrew. Copernicus lived in a time when the earth was seen as the center of the universe, and the change he assisted was the move from a geocentric to a heliocentric view of–the universe. There were other early scholars, though, who had a view closer to ours–such as Giordano Bruno who was burnt at the stake by the Roman Inquisition largely for his view that there was a plurality of worlds–that the stars were like our sun, with planets orbiting them and creatures living on them (1548–1600).

  3. Andrew Simone on November 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am

    Yep. I am familiar with Bruno.

    And, now that my memory is coming back to me, Copernicus just really hated Equants.

    Speaking of historical characters in astronomy, have you heard of Tycho Brahe? Dude was an original pimp, by my reckoning, because he had a golden nose

  4. Alternative Solar Systems : clusterflock on November 20th, 2008 at 11:06 am

    [...] reviewing some information on historical cosmology for Deron’s sake, I stumbled upon a java app that allows you to examine and compare the early solar system models [...]

  5. Daryl Scroggins on November 20th, 2008 at 11:07 am

    Yep–Tycho and the golden nose. And didn’t he die because his bladder exploded at a party? Something like that. And as I recall, it was his meticulous observations that produced many advances in knowledge made by others. Kepler, for instance.

  6. Andrew Simone on November 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    All true. His bladder exploded, I believe, because he didn’t want to be rude and leave the table.

  7. Andrew Simone on November 20th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    It’s times like this that I feel like my liberal arts education payed off. Obviously, there aren’t many times like these.

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