|
A Diversion: Copernicus' Remains |
|
|
|
Dr. Samuel Says -
Weirdness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Thursday, 20 November 2008 |
Faithful readers are aware that my stalwart Doberman guard dog, Copernicus, often gets us in trouble here at Dyscern World HQ Labs. He's forever nosing around into the experiments and knocking things over. But great scientific discoveries often result from accidents. Just ask Rontgen. Or Fleming.
In fact -- and I'm not supposed to tell you this -- the algorithm Apple
uses for it's iPod "shuffle" feature was actually invented by
Copernicus, back in 1999. See, Steve Jobs was dogsitting for me, back
before we had our falling out. I'd given Copernicus a sample of my new
Algernon Flower serum before I left and … well, never mind. A story for
another day.
 Now, I'm aware that this is supposed to be a consumer electronics blog.
On occasion, at any rate. But I couldn't resist sharing this. It seems
researchers in Poland have positively identified the remains of my
dog's namesake, the estimable 16th century astronomer Nicolaus
Copernicus.
Earlier today, archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference
that a skull his team found in 2005, buried in a Roman Catholic
Cathedral in Poland, matches DNA from hair taken from one of
Copernicus' original books.
In certain circles, this is Big News. I stopped hanging out with the
Warsaw archeology crowd in the 1970s -- those guys are weird, frankly
-- but I will concede that this is an historic discovery. Copernicus
(the dog) has been wanting to visit the gravesite of Copernicus (the
astronomer) for years. So we're off to Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport
in the morning. We drew straws, and Copernicus is sitting in First
Class. I'm going in the cargo hold. Normally, I'd pull rank on him, but
this is an exception. He's so excited. More updates as events warrant.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
