Amboise, France
The reason for that smile: Italian scientists want to dig up the remains of Leonardo da Vinci so they can check a pet theory: that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of the artist in drag. “If we manage to find his skull,” says anthropologist Giorgio Gruppioni of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, “we could rebuild Leonardo’s face and compare it with the Mona Lisa.” The committee is petitioning French authorities to dig up Leonardo’s tomb at Château d’Amboise in France’s Loire Valley. It’s unclear whether the artist’s remains are actually there, though, since the original church where he was buried was destroyed during the French Revolution. Many art historians believe that Leonardo was probably gay, but he was not known to be a cross-dresser.
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Climate goals set: The climate agreement reached in Copenhagen last month passed its first hurdle this week, when 55 countries submitted their voluntary plans to reduce emissions by 2020. The countries, which include the U.S. and China, account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases. The plans mark the first time developing countries have formally committed to curbing their emissions. But there is no way to force compliance, and advocates say that even if all nations meet their goals, it wouldn’t halt global warming. “Greater ambition is required to meet the scale of the challenge,” said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N.’s climate-change office.
Berlin
Follow the money: A whistleblower has offered to sell the German government a disk containing 1,500 names of German holders of secret Swiss bank accounts, and the government is taking up the offer. The whistleblower—or thief, as the Swiss government would have it—wants $3.5 million for the disk; the information could enable Germany to collect $278 million in lost tax revenue. “We could hardly decide otherwise,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said this week. Swiss authorities were furious. “It’s a new form of bank robbery,” said Swiss lawmaker Pirmin Bischof.
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