WE’LL FIGURE OUT IF SHAKESPEARE WAS A STONER...

In 2012, archaeologists dug up the remains of King Richard III. Laser scans and analysis taught scientists and historians more about the 15th-century ruler than they ever imagined, revealing how he died as well as clues about his lifestyle and diet (he enjoyed peacock and swan). Academics like Francis Thackeray of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg are hoping to perform the same techniques on Shakespeare’s bones. An analysis could unearth secrets about the Bard’s own death, diet, and health—and whether he smoked weed. In 2001, fragments of clay pipes containing traces of cannabis were discovered in Shakespeare’s garden. (Hemp was used for rope and clothing in the Elizabethan era, so it follows that some of the plant was used for medicine and pleasure.) Of course, researchers may have trouble digging him up. Shakespeare’s epitaph reads: "Bleste be the man that spares thes stones, and curst be he that moves my bones."