What are the chances of digging up the remains of the man who revolutionized astronomy in your local church? Doubts have swirled around the 2005 claim of a Polish archaelogical team that they had unearthed skeletal remains of the 16th century astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)¹. A team of forensic experts, including the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Warsaw Police, examined the claims by investigating the bones and teeth of a 60 to 70-year old man found in Frombork Cathedral, Poland.

Source: Wikipedia

The task at hand was daunting, as outlined in their recent PNAS article². Copernicus died in 1543 at age 70 and was interred at Frombork Cathedral, which unfortunately has a large percentage of unnamed tombs. Scientists used facial reconstruction and comparisons with paintings, including a self-portrait, to narrow down the list of skeletons to one individual. They struck gold with the discovery of a seeming match. There was a forehead scar and evidence of a broken nose between one cranium and a key portrait. The next step involved DNA analysis. Here, the team was aided by Swedish researchers who retrieved hairs from a book annotated by Copernicus (on exhibit at Museum Gustavianum in Uppsala, Sweden). Genetic detective work enabled them to match two of the hairs to DNA segments from a well-preserved cranial tooth, thereby adding to the notion that the remains of Copernicus had finally been discovered.

Interestingly, the authors point out that Copernicus may have had blue eyes, even though early portraits of the astronomer show him with dark eyes. The authors explain their findings by noting that the painting technique, chalcography, used during the lifetime of Copernicus, does not reflect actual color. Therefore it is possible that science has now corrected an artistic impression reproduced in the ensuing centuries of dark eye color by showing that Copernicus in fact had blue eyes. Commentary on the article has been favorable, with doubts mainly centering on the number of hairs and books tested before zeroing in on the Calendarium, which contained the jackpot hairs.

Clearing up the mystery of Copernicus’ remains may literally put him to rest, but he remains immortal to all of us. Like Darwin, he ushered in the modern scientific era with the heliocentric theory, i.e. placing the sun at the center of our solar system and relegating the Earth to the position of another planet orbiting the sun. His findings did not endear him to contemporary critics, e.g. Scaliger, who noted the name of Copernicus next to the recommendation that “certain writings should be expunged or their authors whipped”³. Nowadays scholars and laymen laud him and reserve their debates for side-issues over his nationality and vocation (see Wikipedia).

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has recently honored him by accepting Copernicium as the official name for element 112, a new addition to the Periodic Table.

References
1. Gingerich O. PNAS. 2009 106(30):12215-12216.
2. Bogdanowicz W, et al. PNAS. 2009 [Epub ahead of print].
3. Rosen E. The History of Science Society (Isis). 1958 49(3):319-330.