For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pierre-Louis and for Rachel Pellman.
It's been more than 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci died.
Yet in those intervening centuries,
interest in the Italian polymath who seemingly moved with ease between art,
architecture, and engineering, among other fields, has only grown.
So is interest in his DNA.
About 10 years ago, researchers across a wide range of disciplines,
from forensic science and genetics to art history,
got together with the goal of finding the Renaissance artist's DNA.
Da Vinci had no children and his remains were disturbed during the French Revolution.
The hope is that uncovering his DNA could open the door to a number of discoveries,
including new tools
for authenticating artwork and potential clues about Da Vinci's uncanny way of seeing the world.
Now a new preprint, meaning it has not yet been peer reviewed,
reveals that the team has found male DNA on a chalk drawing called Holy Child that's often attributed to the master.
The researchers say it's possible the genetic evidence comes from Da Vinci himself,
though not all researchers agree.
To learn more about this paper and the project overall, we talked with forensic legend Rhonda Roby.
In addition to being part of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA project,
Rhonda is known for her work using DNA analysis to identify remains of people killed during 9-11 and the 1973 Chilean coup by Pinochet.