Boy Blunder

Let's face it. Ever since the discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922, popular culture cast him as one of Ancient Egypt's greatest leader, simply because of the treasures buried with him and the fact that his tomb was one of the most intact pharaoh tombs ever found. But anyone who even did the slightest bit of research knew that he was actually pretty mediocre and perhaps a forgotten figure at the time. Today we find out even more. This is the first ever DNA test done on an Egyptian royal mummy.

Three take-home points about him:

- He had a club foot and needed a cane to walk.
- He had the most noxious type of malaria, and actually caught more than one malarial infection while he lived, which gives the strongest reason of his death. This marks the oldest genetic proof of the disease.
- His mother and father were also his sister and brother. That's probably why his immune system sucked to begin with.