Scientists discover the brain of a 2,000 year-old person, turned to glass by extreme heat.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:04 Mount Vesuvius.
00:05 It erupted nearly 2,000 years ago.
00:07 It's likely most known for destroying the city of Pompeii,
00:10 turning many of the town's residents
00:11 into ash-covered statues lasting thousands of years.
00:14 But the eruption also destroyed several other cities,
00:17 including Herculaneum.
00:18 And now researchers say one of the preserved bodies
00:21 found there in the 1960s has intact brain cells.
00:24 Forensic anthropologist Pierre Palopetrone
00:27 told CNN he noticed some glassy material shining
00:29 from within the skull while working around it back in 2018.
00:32 But upon closer study, he and his team
00:34 realized the shine was created by the victim's brain
00:37 after it was rapidly heated by the volcano's eruption
00:39 and then rapidly cooled, turning the brain into glass.
00:43 They say nearby debris allowed them to calculate
00:45 that the eruption produced temperatures of more than 932
00:48 degrees Fahrenheit, providing perfectly preserved glass brain
00:51 cells, which researchers say will allow them to study
00:54 the brain of a 2,000-year-old person, something
00:56 that until now was unprecedented.
00:58 The study's findings were published in the journal Plus
01:00 One.
01:02 (upbeat music)