Columbus Mystery Nearly Solved 500 Years After Death

Yahoo - Reuters ^ | 3-10-2006 | Phil Stewart

[Verginius Rufus]

Columbus was trying to get to "Cypango" (Japan) which he knew from reading Marco Polo to be east of China, therefore closer to Europe. "The Indies" was a general term embracing East Asia--he wasn't aiming specifically for the area we call India.

Columbus' father's name was Domenico, hence the name Santo Domingo for the city established on Hispaniola, and subsequently the name Dominican Republic...if Columbus' father had been a Pasquale it would be the Paschal Republic.

If Columbus had never sailed, the New World would have been rediscovered in 1500 by Europeans, by Pedro Cabral (who hit Brazil while trying to sail round Africa).

[Publius6961]

Thank you.
Every little bit helps.

[Ciexyz]

Go to your local library and search the Interlibrary loan system for books and materials on the scientific subjects in which you're interested. It's free (as long as you get the items back on time, of course). Somewhere in the many libraries that make up your city's library system, you'll find sufficient material.

[gleeaikin]

How to learn about molecular biology , genetics, unraveling human DNA, etc. I am currently reading 3 library books that might interest you:

1)"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo," Sean B. Carroll, 2005. This book plunges right into the important new subject of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo Devo). It describes the details of how the basic template for ALL bilateral creatures was established over one half billion years ago, and how it has been modified to produce all subsequent bilateral creatures. Chapter titles include: Animal Architecture, Modern Forms, Ancient Designs; Making Babies: 25,000 Genes, Some Assembly Required; The Big Bang of Animal Evolution; A Beautiful Mind: The Making of Homo sapiens. I started to read the second book but decided this one should come first.

2) "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution," Richard Dawkins, 2004. This book starts with humans and then goes back through 40 steps showing where we diverged from each of our common ancestors, giving the time period when this probably occurred. For those who are upset that we and apes had a common ancestor, wait til they find out that we and bacteria had a common ancestor. An excellent book for understanding the tree (or bush) of life

3) "Darwin's Chost: The Origin of Species Updated," Steve Jones,2000. This book puts Darwin's work in modern scientific perspective. It also include some of Darwin's chapter summaries. Great book for arguing with those who would use 150 year old science to po po evolution.

I hope you find this helpful, and if you do I wouldn't mind hearing from you.

[gleeaikin]

I mistyped the first book it should be "Darwin's Ghost"

I recently read a book about the Gulf Stream. Apparently Columbus knew about the equatorial current that flows away from Spain to the Azores and then across the Atlantic before hooking up with the Gulf Stream. Wherever he traveled he looked at old maps, spoke with experienced seamen and picked as many brains as possible. He went to as many coastal ports on the extreme west of Europe as he could, even in the British Isles, where he saw seeds and vegetation that had been washed there from the New World.

He didn't accidently discover America, he "knew" there was something there all the time. He just had the name wrong.

[RHINO369]

I think he wants to know more about DNA analysis than evolution. I think the way they can tell if two men are related is by comparing Y chromosomes. You carry the exact same (well almost exact there can be mutations) Y chromosome as your father. So if you find 15 guys in Italy with Y chromosomes that match matches Columbus's Y chromosome, they are related.

[S0122017]

Jews that converted out of fear for the inquisition often
took on an overly christian sounding name inorder to 'apease' the church.

So it could be true. Although i saw a documentary suggesting that Columbus hid his past as he was from Catalonia, which would not make him popular in Spain.
(Despite Catalonia now officially part of Spain)

[S0122017]

http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php/news/comments/3798/
From Discovery Channel: ‘Spanish Saliva May Reveal Real Columbus’ | “Hundreds of saliva samples may reveal the disputed origins of Christopher Columbus, according to a genetic investigation aimed at finding possible distant descendants of the admiral's family.

A team of geneticists, led by José Antonio Lorente Acosta from the University of Granada, has begun to collect samples from Spanish men sharing the surname Colón (Columbus) in the effort to find a common ancestor who may be the link with the man credited for discovering the New World in 1492.

Columbus is widely thought to have been born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, the son of wool trader Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa.

Other theories, however, argue that the explorer was born in Spain, his real name being Cristóbal Colón.

Various versions of the story have Columbus as a pirate born in Catalonia, a Catalan Jew who fled to Genoa to hide from the Spanish Inquisition, and the illegitimate son, born in Majorca, of Spain's prince of Viana.

Already 300 Spanish volunteers have agreed to take part in the genetic study. The search will be conducted in Catalonia, Majorca and Valencia; samples will be also taken in Genoa.

The DNA of hundreds of men sharing Columbus' surname will be then compared to DNA from the bones of Hernando - Columbus' son through an extramarital affair - whose identity is certain.

"If we find a chromosome (which males inherit through the paternal line) we could say they were related," Acosta told reporters.

It will not be an easy task: in Catalonia alone, there are about 2,000 Colóns in the electoral register.”

[Publius6961]

Thank you for that list. Although Rhino369 is correct, books on evolution can be also interesting, though not my present interest. The understanding and manipulation of DNA is what fascinates me now and the possible limits of genetic engineering as well as the progress of mapping every nook and cranny.

I think using DNA, microbiology and genetic engineering in the evolution-creation catfight is a wate of time. It bores me.

Yes, whichever side I embrace is irrelevant, as is anyone else's faith, whatever form it takes.

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[gleeaikin]

I appreciate the clarification on what you are seeking.

That being the case I think you would profit from reading "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" as that goes into great detail on the interaction of genes, homeoboxes, DNA, tool kits, switches and repressors. These mechanisms have been discovered in the process of mapping every nook and cranny. Without understanding them and how they operate, it is not possible to understand the limits and possibilities of genetic engineering. The author has been involved in the core research involving discovery of these basic processes, some knowledge of which is only several years old.

[SunkenCiv]

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