According to Fox News, Yale researchers and Italian paleopathologists sequenced ancient DNA from Francesco I de' Medici's remains and compared it to his brother Giovanni, who died of malaria years earlier. Their study, published in iScience, argues the Medici ruler contracted malaria after centuries of suspicion that he and his wife, Bianca Cappello, were poisoned.

Francesco and Bianca died a day apart after recurring fevers, which kept poisoning theories alive for generations. The couple had recently stayed at a mosquito-heavy villa—a detail that makes the new explanation far more plausible than conspiracy.

The story works because it flatters two instincts at once: trust the lab, and keep the murder board. DNA gives editors a clean ending. Media keeps reaching for conspiracy because "they got malaria" does not travel as far as "someone poisoned the Medicis," even when the science points straight at the mosquito. The centuries-old murder mystery involving one of history's most famous families gets repackaged as forensic closure. But the real lesson is about how we choose which old stories deserve new attention.