Copernicus's remains identified

Source: Telegraph (UK) (11-21-08)

Researchers compared DNA samples taken from bones retrieved from Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland, long believed to be the scientist's last resting place, with those of hairs found in a book which once belonged to Copernicus.



The results confirmed that the remains are almost certainly those of the astronomer, who was the first man to put forward the hypothesis that the sun, not the earth, formed the centre of the universe.



Professor Jerzy Gassowski, who led the archaeological team that found the body three years ago in a grave near the altar, said that although they had been sure the remains were those of Copernicus "a grain of doubt remained" so they had sent a vertebrae, a tooth and femur to Uppsala University in Sweden.



Swedish scientists then took hairs from the astronomer's book, which is in the university's possession, and ran DNA tests.



"We collected four hairs and two of them are from the same individual as the bones," said Marie Allen, a genetic expert from Uppsala.



The new findings confirm earlier evidence that indicated the bones were those of the sixteenth-century scientist. A forensic facial reconstruction of the skull looked similar to a portrait of the astronomer, and the bones belonged to man of about 70, the same age Copernicus was when he died in 1543.

[From Copernicus's remains identified]