Nicolaus Copernicus: lost and found

He was born 535 years ago as Mikolaj Kopernik or Nicolaus Koppernigk, and he died 70 years later. In between, he proposed that the sun and not the earth is at the center of the universe, which was a bit of a shock at the time.

When he died in 1543, he was buried in Frombork Cathedral in Northern Poland but his exact grave was never marked. Then four years ago the Bishop (Jacek Jezierski) requested help from archaeologist Dr. Jerzy Gassowski in finding the grave. It took a few years, but a grave was indeed found in an appropriate spot. But was this Copernicus? The body was the right age, but that’s hardly conclusive. What is fairly conclusive is DNA evidence, except that there weren’t exactly databases set up at the time. What they needed was something like a piece of his hair.

And that, it appears, is exactly what they had. Some of Copernicus’s books (that he himself owned, not that he wrote) are still around and on display. In one of those books were four hairs. Dr. Marie Allen tested the DNA, and it turned out that two of those hairs belong to the body under the cathedral.

Proof? Maybe not. But as CSI meets De revolutionibus, it’s pretty cool.

For more information, see the Post-Gazette or CNN.

Tags: Copernicus, DNA