A rare organic glass was found inside a skull from Herculaneum’s 79 CE Vesuvius eruption. Researchers determined that a super-heated ash cloud briefly raised the brain’s temperature above 510°C, then cooled rapidly,

In 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the nearby ancient Roman city of Pompeii and the smaller town of Herculaneum under deadly layers of volcanic ash, pumice and pyroclastic flows. But the disaster that demolished the two settlements also immortalized them,

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago turned a victim’s brain tissue into glass. Scientists say they have figured out how this unusual phenomenon occurred.