Doctors discover the secret behind Mona Lisa's smile.

[Mayareira]

In what may be the ultimate long-distance diagnosis, an Italian doctor has weighed in on the secret of Mona Lisa's smile: high cholesterol.

That adds another theory to a running list that is almost as old as Leonardo da Vinci's portrait itself, painted about 500 years ago, that already ranges from motherhood to old varnish.

Dr. Vito Franco, professor of pathological anatomy at the University of Palermo, told a meeting in Florence, Italy, that the look in Mona Lisa's eyes is a result of a build-up of fatty acids under the skin, a clear sign of high cholesterol.

"Illness exists within the body, it does not have a metaphysical or supernatural dimension," Dr. Franco told La Stampa newspaper this week.

"The people depicted in art reveal their physicality, tell us of their vulnerable humanity, regardless of the artist's awareness of it."

Franco is not the first doctor to worry about Mona Lisa's diet and arteries. A Japanese heart specialist in preventive medicine, Professor Haruo Nakamura declared in 1991 that the woman was likely to have had arteriosclerosis, traced to the yellow swellings next to the bridge of her nose, "one of the symptoms of high cholesterol."

Hedging his bets, Nakamura also said it could have been that Mona Lisa was pregnant, since pregnancy changes the hormonal balance and the body's ability to deal with cholesterol.

Science's fascination with the wife of a Florentine silk merchant is endless. Some of the other theories about that famous smile:

Canadian researchers in 2006 put it down to the glow of motherhood. Using infrared and 3D technology, the National Research Council spotted a 16th century "maternity veil" over her dress, which dovetailed with the birth of a second child to mother-of-five Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant long considered the most likely identity of the woman in the portrait.

What you see is all in your own brain, said Luis Martinez Otero, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, last fall. Different cells in the retina send different messages to different parts of the brain, so sometimes you see a smile and sometimes you don't.

The smile is a trick of your peripheral vision, said Margaret Livingstone, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, in a 2000 study.

Heartache, said Australian historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen in 2004, who disputed the long-accepted theory that the famous subject was Gherardini. Mona Lisa, she said, was Isabella of Aragon, the former Duchess of Milan who had married her cousin, an abusive boozer who was impotent.

tl;dr She had bad diet and high cholesterol.

http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencet...gh-cholesterol

[SephYuyX]

Must be a slow day in science land.

[Mayareira]

Well, at least they've got an answer now.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...a_1553870c.jpg

[SephYuyX]

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/6114/68885545.jpg

[Qalbert]

[Ksandra]

We must defeat these scientists, for they have become extremely terribad.

[Devolver]

This is now a photoshop Mona Lisa thread.

[Yuri-G]

This is now a photoshop Mona Lisa thread.

though my lack of photoshop skills means I will not be able to contribute, I nonetheless approve of this motion.

[Ramor]

i saw the mona lisa, it's so goddamn unimpressive and i have no idea why it's famous

[Qalbert]

to the louvre!

[Suburbanelite]

One scientist in ITALY says that Mona Lisa has high cholesterol, so all of the scientists in the WORLD must be doing a terrible job. More at 11

[wipers]

This just proves that Twinkies have been around a lot longer than we all thought.

[Kurokikaze]

1. Why the fuck is this news?
2. Why the fuck are people wasting time trying to figure this shit out?

I guess, a picture is worth a thousand words.
/shades on
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!

[Not Kuno]

I always thought that the Mona Lisa was garbage. I don't see what separates it from the fifty million other portraits drawn in the history of humankind.

[finalwolf]

This is now a photoshop Mona Lisa thread.

hnm-boredness

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../monajules.jpg

[Ksandra]

One scientist in ITALY says that Mona Lisa has high cholesterol, so all of the scientists in the WORLD must be doing a terrible job. More at 11

someone didn't read the g-spot thread.

[Kaylia]

One scientist in ITALY says that Mona Lisa has high cholesterol, so all of the scientists in the WORLD must be doing a terrible job. More at 11

I would say there is a minimum of 5 scientist doing a terrible jobs this week. It's not the first retarded headline we see that involved useless sciences.

[Suburbanelite]

All scientists are doing terrible jobs unless they are making me DRUGS

[Chelly]

too easy
http://imagebeast.net/images/7hw9t23kbovitxje6fuo.jpg
girugalisa

[Rockstaru]

http://imgur.com/6JYq3.jpg

http://imgur.com/7zrak.jpg