Researchers in Pompeii were studying the skeleton of a young man who died following the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Inside his skull, the found strange glass fragments. A close look revealed what appeared to be solidified nerve cells. Turns out, the shiny shards are bits of the fellow's brain.
"When we realized that there was really a glassy brain, the scientific question was: how is it possible?" said Roma Tre University geologist Guido Giordano, co-author of a new paper in the journal Scientific Reports.
This is the first discovery of biological soft tissues that turned into glass. In this case, the transformation occurred at 510° Celsius (950° Fahrenheit).
From Science News:
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° 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.
Previously:
• Idiot tourist carved his name into an ancient Pompeii house
• The food stalls of ancient Pompeii
• Sequencing the genome of a Pompeii resident and solving a 2,000 year old mystery
• Tourist returns artifacts she swiped at Pompeii in hopes of lifting 'curse'
• Treasures continue to be unearthed this summer in Pompeii
