The scoop on The Copernicus Plot: Seven of the 260 surviving copies of Polish

astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ momentous 1543

book De Revolutionibus Orbium

Coelestium (On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres), in which he argued that the Earth goes around the

sun and not vice versa, have been stolen from university

and scientific libraries worldwide over the past several

years. Worth $400,000 apiece but virtually impossible

to fence, why have multiple thieves, or one thief very

gifted at disguise, used various ruses to take the tomes

from cities as far apart as Krakow, Kiev,

Stockholm, St. Petersburg and

the University of Illinois? [Chicago Tribune]