A brain transmuted into glass by the famous volcano should have been impossible. Some scientists say it still is.

Scientists found glass fragments inside the skull of a young man who died in Herculaneum when Mt. Vesuvius exploded in 79 CE.

A rare organic glass was found inside a skull from Herculaneum’s 79 CE Vesuvius eruption. Researchers determined that a super ...

In the skull, they found fatty acids suggestive of brain triglycerides (proteins typical of brain tissue) and fatty acids typical of human hair fat — all vitrified. None of these substances were ...

Under the lamp, I suddenly saw small glassy remains glittering in the volcanic ash that filled the skull," Petrone said ...

For several years now, we've been following a tantalizing story indicating that the high heat of the ash cloud generated when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD was sufficiently hot to turn one of the ...

A fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter, also called a pyroclastic flow, followed, burying the area. Experts ...

Mind Shattering The cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD has fascinated researchers and historians for centuries.

Archaeologists and volcanologists have proven that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius turned a young man's brain into glass.

A HUNK of dark-coloured glass found inside the skull of an individual who died during the Mount Vesuvius eruption may actually be a fossilised brain, researchers have revealed. Glass rarely forms ...

Heat from the eruption in A.D. 79 was so intense that it vitrified the brain tissue of one unfortunate Herculaneum resident, ...

Photo: Pier Paolo Petrone Though human brain preservation is rare in the archaeological ... position to be preserved—as the individual’s skull and spin protected the organ from the brunt ...