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Can't the Man Have a Little Peace?

Jan 23, 2009

Not long ago, news came out that researchers would be exhuming the remains of Galileo Galilei and a woman buried with him to see if she was his daughter. Now it seems that Galileo's DNA will be probed for another purpose: this time to try to determine the cause of his visual impairment. "Based on his own accounts, it has been speculated that the great Tuscan physicist suffered from uveitis, or inflammation of the middle layer of the eye," the article says.

Breaking News
The Scan

Pig Organ Transplants Considered

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Food and Drug Administration may soon allow clinical trials that involve transplanting pig organs into humans.

'Poo-Bank' Proposal

Harvard Medical School researchers suggest people should bank stool samples when they are young to transplant when they later develop age-related diseases.

Spurred to Develop Again

New Scientist reports that researchers may have uncovered why about 60 percent of in vitro fertilization embryos stop developing.

Science Papers Examine Breast Milk Cell Populations, Cerebral Cortex Cellular Diversity, Micronesia Population History

In Science this week: unique cell populations found within breast milk, 100 transcriptionally distinct cell populations uncovered in the cerebral cortex, and more.