Scientists to solve astronomical riddle using Galileo DNA

[Galileo Galilei]

Scientists to solve astronomical riddle using Galileo DNA
January 19th, 2009 in General Science / Other




Italian scientists are trying to get Galileo's DNA in order to figure out how the astronomer forged groundbreaking theories on the universe while gradually becoming blind, a historian said Monday.



Scientists at Florence's Institute and Museum of the History of Science want to exhume the body of 17th Century astronomer Galileo Galilei to find out exactly what he could see through his telescope.



The Italian astronomer -- who built on the work of predecessor Nicolaus Copernicus to develop modern astronomy with the sun as the centre of the universe -- had a degenerative eye disease that eventually left him blind.



"If we succeed, thanks to DNA, in understanding how this disease distorted his sight, it could bring about important discoveries for the history of science," said the institute's director, Paolo Galluzzi.



"We could explain certain mistakes that Galileo made: why he described the planet Saturn as having 'lateral ears' rather than having seen it encircled by rings for example," said Galluzzi.



In an effort to recreate what Galileo -- who lived from 1564 to 1642 -- saw, the scientific team has made an exact replica of his telescope.



They now want to get DNA proof of what ophthalmologists have said was a genetic eye disease and thereby more fully understand the conditions under which he made observations that revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos.



It will take the team one year to raise the 300,000 euros (390,000 dollars) needed to finance the project and clear administrative hurdles to open Galileo's tomb in Florence's Santa Croce Basilica, Galluzzi said.



The United Nations proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations.



In 1609, he discovered spots on the Sun, craters and peaks on the surface of the Moon and satellites orbiting Jupiter, thereby confirming Copernicus's theory that planets orbit the Sun rather than the Earth.



http://www.physorg.com/news151592402.html



Now is the time to clone Galileo!

[Galileo Galilei]

Outrage at proposal to exhume Galileo

By Malcolm Moore




Galileo Galilei, imprisoned by the Catholic Church for promoting heliocentrism

A proposal to dig up the body of Galileo has provoked a storm of protest.




Paolo Galluzzi, the director of the Institute of the History of Science, wants to conduct tests on the corpse, which lies in the Basilica of Santa Croce, in Florence.



He said there remained a mystery about the identity of the body buried alongside Galileo.

The scientist died in 1642, after spending his final years in seclusion following his trial by the Church for promoting heliocentrism.

The Vatican refused to allow his burial among the "great figures" in Santa Croce, which include Nicolo Machiavelli and Michelangelo, and he was placed underneath the bell tower.

However, his body was moved in 1736 and a monument was built to him.



"Finally we will be able to discover whether the body buried with Galileo is that of his eldest daughter, Sister Maria Celeste," said Mr Galluzzi.



"We can also find out if it is true that Galileo died blind. We also want to do some tests on his cranium".



Several members of the city council described the request as "morbid", especially in light of the celebrations that are planned for next year marking the 400th anniversary of his invention of the telescope.



Father Antonio Di Marcantonio, the rector, said: "This is a carnival. Leave us in peace. Nothing should be touched."



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580692/Outrage-at-proposal-to-exhume-Galileo.html

[M House]

Um the dudes dead, but I'm pretty sure Galileo would be one to let the science trump the church here.

[Mitt Romneys sideburns]

Damn, the church is still sticking it to that guy. Just let it go, he won.

[thasre]

For what it's worth, he wasn't imprisoned for preaching heliocentrism, but for independently interpreting scripture. Maybe it's a moot point, but it wasn't about his science, it was about his theology. The Catholic Church was a little touchy about that, post-Reformation.

And I don't see why libertarians would argue that the property-owners of the land where Galileo is buried should feel compelled to let other people dictate what they should do with their property.

[M House]

Let's see the church that more or less ordered his death and refused to allow him to buried normally gets to now determine what to do with his body. Right....

[Galileo Galilei]

Let's see the church that more or less ordered his death and refused to allow him to buried normally gets to now determine what to do with his body. Right....

Galileo is buried in a giant tomb next to Michaelanglo and Machiavelli. He is buried in Florence. The church, Sante Croce, is a catholic church not under the control of the Pope.

Galileo Galilei the first (an prominant ancestor of Galileo) who died in 1445 is also buried there. So technically, Galileo Galilei is really Galileo Galilei the second.

[Galileo Galilei]

THE DEATH OF GALILEO


"On Wednesday, 8 January 1642 from the Incarnation at four o'clock in the night at the age of seventy-seven years, ten months and twenty days, with philosophical and Christian constancy Galileo rendered his soul to his Creator, sending it forth, as far as we can believe, to enjoy and admire more closely those eternal and immutable marvels, which that soul, by means of weak devices with such eagerness and impatience, had sought to bring near to the eyes of us mortals."

Vincenzio Viviani


"Today news has also come of the loss of Signor Galilei, which touches not just Florence, but the whole world and our whole century that from this divine man has received more splendor than from almost all the other ordinary philosophers. Now, envy ceasing, the sublimity of that intellect, will begin to be known which will serve all posterity as a guide in the search for truth."

Luca Holste


"GALILEO GALILEI FLORENTINE NOBLEMAN
Most Eminent Restorer of Geometry, Astronomy and Philosophy
Comparable to no one in his time
May he repose well here"

Galileo's Tomb

[Uriel999]

Galileo is buried in a giant tomb next to Michaelanglo and Machiavelli. He is buried in Florence. The church, Sante Croce, is a catholic church not under the control of the Pope.

Galileo Galilei the first (an prominant ancestor of Galileo) who died in 1445 is also buried there. So technically, Galileo Galilei is really Galileo Galilei the second.

So does that make you the 3rd?

[Galileo Galilei]

So does that make you the 3rd?

Good one. No, actually Galileo had either a grandson or grand nephew (I can't remember), also named Galileo Galilei.

I have, however, read 60 books about Galileo, so I'm trying to get inside his mind.

[heavenlyboy34]

Good one. No, actually Galileo had either a grandson or grand nephew (I can't remember), also named Galileo Galilei.

I have, however, read 60 books about Galileo, so I'm trying to get inside his mind.

Wow! :eek: I bet you like Da Vinci's work too...what did you think of Da Vinci's work with anatomy of corpses? :D;)

[pacelli]

Galileo is buried in a giant tomb next to Michaelanglo and Machiavelli. He is buried in Florence. The church, Sante Croce, is a catholic church not under the control of the Pope.

Galileo Galilei the first (an prominant ancestor of Galileo) who died in 1445 is also buried there. So technically, Galileo Galilei is really Galileo Galilei the second.

He's actually buried on the opposite side of the church from Machiavelli, and directly opposite from Michelangelo..

Galileo is buried next to the Ghiberti's.

http://www.planetware.com/i/map/I/santa-croce-map.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/05/Galileo_Tomb_Santa_Croce.JPG/398px-Galileo_Tomb_Santa_Croce.JPG

[Agent CSL]

Thats...... great........ Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat. Yeeeeeeeeeahheeeeeeeee..................

I'm backing away now.

[Galileo Galilei]

Archeologists Want to dig up Tycho Brahe!

Hamlet may have poisoned stargazer Tycho Brahe in mercury murder

Bojan Pancevski in Vienna

A murder mystery involving royal intrigues and an eccentric scientist with a golden nose could be resolved after 400 years when researchers open the tomb of Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer, in the light of new evidence that he was murdered by a contract killer.

Archeologists are waiting for permission to open the tomb in the Tyn Cathedral, one of the landmarks of the Old Town in Prague. Brahe, the first astronomer to describe a supernova, in 1572, is also famous for his incredibly accurate measurements of celestial movements in the pre-telescope era and for having catalogued more than 1,000 new stars.

The wealthy nobleman is said to have worn a prosthetic nose of gold and silver after losing his own at the age of 20 in a rapier duel resulting from a row over a mathematical formula.

A new theory by Danish scholars claims that Brahe was poisoned with mercury on the orders of Christian IV, the King of Denmark, because the astronomer had an affair with his mother. It is even suggested that Shakespeare used the alleged liaison as an inspiration for Hamlet.
The scientist was revered across Europe and served as personal astrologer of King Friedrich II of Denmark. He was held in such regard that more than 5 per cent of Denmark's gross national product went into his projects.

When the King died and Christian IV, his 19-year-old son, ascended the throne, Brahe fell from grace and had to flee the country. In 1597 he settled in Prague, where he became the court astrologist of Emperor Rudolph II of Habsburg, but died soon after, aged 57. According to an account by his assistant Brahe died because he was too polite to leave the table at a banquet until his bladder “became twisted”.

Peter Andersen, a Danish scholar at the University of Strasbourg, told The Times that the astronomer was poisoned by his cousin Count Eric Brahe, a Swedish diplomat in the service of the Danish Crown.

Last year Professor Andersen found the diary of the alleged murderer, in which he records many meetings with Hans, the brother of Christian IV, on whose orders he is believed to have gone to Prague to murder his cousin.

Professor Andersen believes that his cousin slipped mercury into Brahe's drink. Tests on his hair showed mercury levels one hundred times above normal as a result of ingesting a large quantity of the liquid metal about 13 hours before his death, coinciding with the visit from his cousin.

— Tycho Brahe’s interest in astronomy was awakened at the age of 14 by the 1560 solar eclipse

— His observatory, built by the King of Denmark on the island of Hven, is estimated to have cost Denmark more than 5 per cent of its gross national product

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5569868.ece

[Galileo Galilei]

Wow! :eek: I bet you like Da Vinci's work too...what did you think of Da Vinci's work with anatomy of corpses? :D;)

I'm not actually into da Vinci that much. He is on the short list of greatest artists. However, he had little impact on the scientific revolution, one reason being he never published anything.

Da Vinci only became well know as a scientist in the late 1880s when he notebooks were published.

[Galileo Galilei]

He's actually buried on the opposite side of the church from Machiavelli, and directly opposite from Michelangelo..

Galileo is buried next to the Ghiberti's.

http://www.planetware.com/i/map/I/santa-croce-map.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/05/Galileo_Tomb_Santa_Croce.JPG/398px-Galileo_Tomb_Santa_Croce.JPG

Thank you for this, I've never seen it. I didn't know Ghiberti was buried there as well. I also didn't know that Giotto, the most revolutionary artist in history, has frescos there. Wow!

[Galileo Galilei]

Billy the Kid’s lawyers want their client dug up

Old West outlaw’s counsel joins in petition seeking DNA tests to confirm outlaw's true identity

Not content with digging up Billy the Kid's mother to settle a debate over the outlaw's fate, now local sheriffs want to exhume the remains under the Kid's gravestone. And since New Mexico's governor appointed a lawyer to represent the Old West outlaw, one of the petitioners seeking the exhumation of Billy the Kid is ... Billy the Kid.

The petition, filed in New Mexico's 10th District Court last Thursday, opens the latest chapter in a 123-year-old mystery: Who's buried in Billy the Kid's grave?

Exploring that question touches on genetic science and the economics of small-town tourism as well as one of the greatest legends of the Old West.

Story continues below ↓

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4441143/

Officials could face charges for digging up alleged Billy the Kid
http://www.azph.gov/PDF/Officials%20could%20face%20charges%20for%20digging %20up%20alleged%20Billy%20the%20Kid.pdf

[Galileo Galilei]

Pope Formosus dug up, Tried, Convicted, and Sentenced to Death

THE CADAVER SYNOD:

STRANGEST TRIAL IN HISTORY

One thousand one hundred and four years ago a criminal trial took place in Italy, a trial so macabre, so gruesome, so frightful that it easily qualifies as the strangest and most terrible trial in human history. At this trial, called the Cadaver Synod, a dead pope wrenched from the grave was brought into a Rome courtroom, tried in the presence of a successor pope, found guilty, and then, in the words of Horace K. Mann's The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (1925), "subjected to the most barbarous violence."

CONTINUE THIS GRUESOME ORDEAL:

http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his31_cadaver.html

The Synod Horrenda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod

[JohnJay]

400 years ago, in August 1609, Galileo displayed his telescope invention -
that is the reason 2009 has been proclaimed the International Year of Astronomy :

http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iya0805/
"IYA2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first astronomical observation through a telescope.
It is nothing short of a worldwide celebration, promoting astronomy and its contribution to society and culture,
with events at regional, national, and global levels."

Digging up his body . . . for DNA . . . I see a trend here.

So eh, who else should we dig up ?

[M House]

Thomas Jefferson so we can settle that debate about his offspring. Obviously tested living Jefferson's wasn't good enough. Dig up Harding as well, he's one of the few presidents that's not supposedly related to the others.