Discovering Columbus

jonerik writes "The New York Times has this article (no registration required) on plans to test the DNA on various sets of bones which are claimed to have been those of Christopher Columbus (or, as he's known in Spain, Cristóbal Colón). The plan is for José Antonio Lorente (English translation here), director of the Laboratory of Genetic Identification at the University of Granada to extract DNA from the bones of Columbus' illegitimate son Hernando and compare it to DNA extracted from bones in Seville and Santo Domingo which are both claimed to be those of Columbus. It is hoped that the testing can be carried out by 2006, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' death."

Comments

I doubt it...

[gnovos]

There is absolutly NO WAY that either of these two cities would be willing to let anyone test these bones. It is too big a risk. Back in the days when the bones were first collected, selling bones of famous people was a scam as ubiquitous as emails from Nigeria today. There is a REAL good chance that *neither* of these sets of bones are real and a possibility they are not even human...

Re:Columbus was late to the party!

[spencerogden]

Maybe you're just disagreeing to have fun, but the fact is that Columbus' visit was the one that caused a huge change in the world. When would the America's have been colonized if Columbus hadn't done it? Maybe around the same time, I don't know if there were other explorers pitching the same thing. But it doesn't matter that the phone would have been invented at exactly the same time if Bell hadn't been born, we still celebrate him as the inventor.