Q: Maybe it took half a millennium for humankind to do right by the memory of the great Nicolaus Copernicus but finally we did
How so?
Clue: He left no heirs but he did leave hairs.
A: The Polish scientist, "the man who moved the Earth" with the idea that our planet orbits the sun rather than the reverse, died in 1543 and was buried in an unmarked grave.
Then in 2005, archaeologists used church records and ground-penetrating radar to unearth a skeleton from under a medieval cathedral in Frombork, Poland.
Its age matched the 70-year-old Copernicus.
Analysis of the bones and a reconstruction of the face supported the identification, but without DNA evidence, nobody could be sure because the Catholic priest had left no known heirs.
"He did leave hairs, however," reported Constance Holden in "Science" magazine.
Swedish researchers found several nestled in the binding of one of his well-thumbed standard astronomical references at the University of Uppsala.
When genealogist Marie Allen extracted mitochondrial DNA from the badly degraded hairs and compared it with mitochondrial DNA from the skeleton's tooth, she announced a "positive" match.
Now plans are to rebury Copernicus' bones in Frombork in 2010 and to mark the site honorably and historically at last.
Q: It strikes without warning and can jangle the nerves of even seasoned air travelers but maybe not for much longer.
What's CAT got to do with this?
A: "Clear air turbulence" is far less predictable than turbulence caused by storms, high winds or the flow of air over mountains, says Paul Williams of the University of Reading, UK, in "New Scientist" magazine.
Since with CAT the skies are clear and blue, pilots can't easily avoid the problems, so hundreds of passenger injuries occur every year.
The current warning system, or Graphical Turbulence Guidance, relies on pilot reports and observations and is not very accurate.
A new model uses wind-speed measurements to pinpoint the cause of the turbulence, which is gravity waves generated at the boundaries between fast-moving high-altitude jet streams and slower-moving air.
Now pilots can predict better where these waves are likely to be strongest and can skirt any trouble.
In one study, the new setup successfully predicted 83 percent of incidents, raising hopes of "declawing" CAT even further.
Q: In pro basketball, who makes use of the amazing "pinkie finger" prognosis?
A: Elite players often do, even if unconsciously.
As reported in "Nature Neuroscience," University of Rome neuroscientist Salvatore Anglioti et al. used video clips of shots to study exactly when coaches, players and fans could tell if a shot was going to swish through the net or bounce off the rim.
They found that all three groups did better the longer the clip was and the closer to the basket they could track the ball.
Amazingly, even when the clips were cut off at a point before the shooter released the ball, savvy players could predict success about 70 percent of the time, compared to only 40 percent for "expert" spectators such as coaches and sportwriters.
The players were able to do this presumably because they had become seasoned readers of body language, including especially how the pinkie finger was held just as the ball was being released, affecting the ball's spin and likelihood of a basket.
Thus in effect the pros' secret seems to be an ability to play the shot mentally and get ready for a rebound (or whatever) just by watching the shooter's body.
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com