Researchers find 14 living male descendants of Da Vinci in bid to unveil secret of his genius

Scientists hope to sequence the men's genome to identify whether it contains any genetic gifts that powered his exceptional eyes.

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Scientists have found 14 living male descendants of Leonardo Da Vinci.

A decade-long investigation into Leonardo Da Vinci's DNA has found 14 living male relatives, from whom it hopes to uncover the secrets of his genius.

Da Vinci was a renaissance polymath whose works include some of humanity's most famous religious paintings as well as scientifically exact anatomical and technical drawings that prefigured the invention of helicopters and tanks.

Anthropologists plan on sequencing Da Vinci's DNA "to understand better his extraordinary talents, notably his visual acuity, through genetic associations" and hope to create a three-dimensional image of the man if sufficient genome sequence data is available.