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Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

cnn.com

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Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#11

Post by Terr_ »

unsungNovelty wrote: post #7
jjmarr wrote: post #6

My family has spent centuries marrying into an alternative claimant to the Grand Duke of Tuscany who did not inherit through Ferdinando I. We were planning to use this as an excuse to invade Italy and put the scion of our own dynasty on the throne and establish ourselves as royalty in the annals of history. Unfortunately, this + the unification of Italy may have irredeemably foiled our plan. Not sure what to do now,…

> Not sure what to do now, should I find a wife with a better claim? Naah. You start an AI company!

The signature Hapsburg hallucinations, developed through generations of self-distillation.

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#12

Post by satiric »

jjmarr wrote: post #6

My family has spent centuries marrying into an alternative claimant to the Grand Duke of Tuscany who did not inherit through Ferdinando I. We were planning to use this as an excuse to invade Italy and put the scion of our own dynasty on the throne and establish ourselves as royalty in the annals of history. Unfortunately, this + the unification of Italy may have irredeemably foiled our plan. Not sure what to do now,…

Nah, ditch the wife. Become a cardinal in the Catholic church, then get elected pope. From there it should be fairly trivial to re-establish the Papal States to their largest extent.

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#13

Post by Avicebron »

Terr_ wrote: post #11
unsungNovelty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not sure what to do now, should I find a wife with a better claim? Naah. You start an AI company!

The signature Hapsburg hallucinations, developed through generations of self-distillation.

CharlesGPT II

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#14

Post by senshan »

jjmarr wrote: post #6

My family has spent centuries marrying into an alternative claimant to the Grand Duke of Tuscany who did not inherit through Ferdinando I. We were planning to use this as an excuse to invade Italy and put the scion of our own dynasty on the throne and establish ourselves as royalty in the annals of history. Unfortunately, this + the unification of Italy may have irredeemably foiled our plan. Not sure what to do now,…

No, do not stop the efforts! The story here tells us that risks of being poisoned (once the throne is obtained) are greatly exaggerated.

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#15

Post by senshan »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

tl;dr; - Scientists did DNA testing on the remains of the Grand Duke and his wife, and found malaria. The rival theory is poisoning by the relative who was next in line for the Ducal throne. HOWEVER, this test result solves nothing: > But is there any guarantee that Francesco was not also poisoned? > “Perhaps not,” Ochoa said, “but the genetic evidence presented in our study decreases the margin for speculation.” > G…

Right. If one lives in an area prone to malaria, has good immune system, will the body tend to carry the antibodies all the time?

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#16

Post by colingauvin »

senshan wrote: post #15
bell-cot wrote: post #2

tl;dr; - Scientists did DNA testing on the remains of the Grand Duke and his wife, and found malaria. The rival theory is poisoning by the relative who was next in line for the Ducal throne. HOWEVER, this test result solves nothing: > But is there any guarantee that Francesco was not also poisoned? > “Perhaps not,” Ochoa said, “but the genetic evidence presented in our study decreases the margin for speculation.” > G…

Right. If one lives in an area prone to malaria, has good immune system, will the body tend to carry the antibodies all the time?

Yes, which is why the immunological tests done in 2006 were not seen as conclusive. However, this time they found actual plasmodium DNA which suggests active infection at time of death. Including from two species, suggesting double infection. Fun.

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#17

Post by senshan »

colingauvin wrote: post #16
senshan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. If one lives in an area prone to malaria, has good immune system, will the body tend to carry the antibodies all the time?

Yes, which is why the immunological tests done in 2006 were not seen as conclusive. However, this time they found actual plasmodium DNA which suggests active infection at time of death. Including from two species, suggesting double infection. Fun.

Interesting. Little brother brought a new version of malaria to try...

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#18

Post by bell-cot »

senshan wrote: post #15
bell-cot wrote: post #2

tl;dr; - Scientists did DNA testing on the remains of the Grand Duke and his wife, and found malaria. The rival theory is poisoning by the relative who was next in line for the Ducal throne. HOWEVER, this test result solves nothing: > But is there any guarantee that Francesco was not also poisoned? > “Perhaps not,” Ochoa said, “but the genetic evidence presented in our study decreases the margin for speculation.” > G…

Right. If one lives in an area prone to malaria, has good immune system, will the body tend to carry the antibodies all the time?

The pedantic answer is "yes".

The pragmatic answer is "if only it was that easy" -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria#Immune_system_evasion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global_malaria_deaths_201...

Re: Medici family mystery may be solved after more than 400 years

#19

Post by DaveZale »

so interesting.

I worked for a very small company getting funding by the Medici Fund a while back. First I ever heard of the name.

So much intrigue in the past. Guys like Montaigne were said to have "food tasters" to sample the goods before they ate themselves.

As a career trace analytical chemist, I can tell you for sure, that weird poisonings are so much less likely to occur now, because of the probability of detection. That's a little comforting. The same goes for the food supply. Mechanisms are in place to rapidly detect deliberately placed poisons.

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