The quest for Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA
Science Quickly
Scientific American
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Something unexpected has arrived in Happy Meal. |
| 0:03.0 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hello Kitty and friends are teaming up for the Ultimate Collab. |
| 0:08.0 | Joining your little ones on a fun-fueled adventure. |
| 0:11.0 | Some fun, some food, it's all inside this Happy Meal. |
| 0:16.0 | Until the 2nd of February, from 11am includes one pre-selected book or toy, whilst that's last. American science quickly. I'm Kendra Pira Lewis, in for Rachel Fulman. |
| 0:46.1 | It's been more than 500 years since Leonardo Dithynchi died. Yet in those intervening centuries, interest in the Italian polymath, who seemingly moved with ease between art, |
| 0:50.6 | architecture and engineering, among other fields, has only grown. |
| 0:55.0 | So is interest in his DNA. |
| 0:57.1 | About 10 years ago, researchers across a wide range of disciplines, from forensic science and genetics to art history, |
| 1:04.7 | got together with the goal of finding the Renaissance artist's DNA. |
| 1:08.8 | Da Vinci had no children, and his remains were disturbed during |
| 1:11.3 | the French Revolution. The hope is that uncovering his DNA could open the door to a number of |
| 1:16.0 | discoveries, including new tools for authenticating artwork and potential clues about Da Vinci's |
| 1:20.9 | uncanny way of seeing the world. Now a new pre-print, meaning it has not yet been peer-reviewed, |
| 1:26.2 | reveals that the team has found male DNA on a chalk drawing called Holy Child that's often attributed to the master. |
| 1:33.2 | The researchers say it's possible the genetic evidence comes from Da Vinci himself, though |
| 1:37.4 | not all researchers agree. |
| 1:39.6 | To learn more about this paper and the project overall, we talked with forensic legend Ronda |
| 1:43.8 | Robe. In addition to being |
| 1:45.3 | part of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA project, Rhonda is known for her work using DNA analysis to identify |
| 1:51.1 | remains of people killed during 9-11 and the 1973 Chilean coup by Pinochet. She was also part of the |
| 1:57.4 | team that identified the remains of Tsariglis II, along with other members |
... |
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