{"id":248097,"date":"2025-02-27T16:47:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T16:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/mount-vesuvius-turned-this-ancient-brain-into-glass-heres-how\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T16:47:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T16:47:45","slug":"mount-vesuvius-turned-this-ancient-brain-into-glass-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/mount-vesuvius-turned-this-ancient-brain-into-glass-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Mount Vesuvius turned this ancient brain into glass. Here\u2019s how"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MAR_014_25_A_598X336_option2_V02.png?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Mount Vesuvius turned this ancient brain into glass. Here\u2019s how\" title=\"Mount Vesuvius turned this ancient brain into glass. Here\u2019s how\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar single__rich-text___RmCDp\" data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 is perhaps most famous for entombing the Roman city of Pompeii. But in nearby Herculaneum, also buried in the eruption, the preserved skeleton of a young man lying in bed contained a surprising find: glass remnants of his brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When researchers <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0240017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">studied<\/a> the shiny samples, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/mount-vesuvius-eruption-human-nerve-cell-tendrils-glass\">they saw what appeared to be nerve cells<\/a>. A new study now uncovers more details into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-025-88894-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how the glass may have formed<\/a>, the team reports February 27 in <em>Scientific Reports<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article-type\/deep-end-podcast?cta=top\">\n  <\/a><\/div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article-type\/deep-end-podcast?cta=top\">\n<\/a>\n\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  max-width: 100%;\n  height: auto;\n  clear: both;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/lets-learn-about-glass\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Glass forms when a liquid \u2014 usually molten sand \u2014 is quickly cooled<\/a>. That\u2019s how manufacturers make windows and cups. The process can also occur naturally, like when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/stroke-good-fortune-wealth-data-petrified-lightning\">lighting strikes a sandy desert, forming lumps of glass<\/a> called fulgurites. Before the young Roman\u2019s brain remnants were discovered, however, glassy biological soft tissues had not been found in nature, the researchers say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we realized that there was really a glassy brain, the scientific question was: how is it possible?\u201d says Guido Giordano, a geologist and volcanologist at Roma Tre University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Giordano and colleagues used a technique called differential scanning calorimetry, which involved heating the already glassy brain shards, to determine the temperature at which the glass had formed. The shards underwent structural changes at temperatures over 510\u00b0 Celsius (950\u00b0 Fahrenheit), suggesting that\u2019s the temperature the brain tissue hit originally to turn to glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers reasoned that the swift onslaught of hot volcanic ash, rock and gas that entombed Herculaneum could not have been responsible for turning the brain chunks to glass. Similar pyroclastic flows have been found to max out at 465\u00b0 C and would not have cooled fast enough to turn brain to glass. Instead, a much hotter ash cloud probably hit the young man and dissipated fast, allowing for the necessary cooling. Only later were the remains buried in the thick volcanic debris, the team says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So why didn\u2019t the young man\u2019s brain completely disintegrate in the extreme heat? His skull may have had something to do with it, the researchers suggest. The bones may have protected against direct contact with the ash cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div> <!-- \/.rich-text -->\n\t\t\t\n<footer class=\"article-footer__wrapper___eChRS article-footer__with-sidebar___9oDuK\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"article-footer__feedback___sNXjz\">Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/mailto:feedback@sciencenews.org\">feedback@sciencenews.org<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/permission-republish\">Reprints FAQ<\/a><\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n<div class=\"author-bio__wrapper___ODe-4\">\n\t\n\t<div class=\"author-bio__content___F9GU3\">\n\t\t\n\n\t\t<div class=\"author-bio__bio___jkxvt\">\n\t\t\t<p>Alex Viveros is a Spring 2025 science writing intern at Science News. He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in Biology and Community Health from Tufts University and a master\u2019s degree in science writing from MIT.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.donate-box {\n  border-top: 7px solid red !important;\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-color: #fdfbf2;\n  padding: 20px;\n}\n.from-nature-index__heading___AhgOe {\n  display: none;\n}\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<style><![CDATA[.from-nature-index__heading___AhgOe {\n    display: none;\n}]]><\/style><div id=\"donateConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group donate-box\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">\nWe are at a critical time and <strong><mark>supporting science journalism \nis more important than ever<\/mark><\/strong>. <em>Science News<\/em> and our \nparent organization, the Society for Science, need your help to strengthen \nscientific literacy and ensure that important societal decisions are made \nwith science in mind.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">\nPlease \n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/subscribe1-print-digital?key=9MENDCON&amp;utm_source=end-of-article&amp;utm_medium=site&amp;utm_campaign=non-sub-control\">\nsubscribe to <em>Science News<\/em> and <strong>add $16<\/strong><\/a> to expand \nscience literacy and understanding.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/aside><\/footer>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/mount-vesuvius-ancient-brain-glass\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 is perhaps most famous for entombing the Roman city of Pompeii. But in nearby Herculaneum, also buried in the eruption, the preserved skeleton of a young man lying in bed contained a surprising find: glass remnants of his brain. When researchers studied the shiny samples, they saw [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/MAR_014_25_A_598X336_option2_V02.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[8221,1920,21310,671,6638,11156,192309],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248099,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248097\/revisions\/248099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}