“Unbelievable Transformation: How a Mount Vesuvius Eruption Turned a Man’s Brain to Glass”
According to Live Science, researchers found that the hot gas and rock that erupted from the volcano had destroyed the flesh of one man to the point that it turned pieces of his brain tissue into shiny black “glass.”
In a new paper published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, scientists detailed how a man who was engulfed in Vesuvius’ hot ash had his brain burned and later transformed into twisted, glassy bits.
These glass pieces of brain later “encrusted” the surface of the man’s skull, from which the scientists were able to collect the unique specimen. The process in which brain matter goes through extreme heat and morphs into a glass-like texture is called vitrification.
CM Dixon/Heritage Images/Getty ImagesCasts of the victims from the Vesuvius eruption.
The finding itself is unique due to the fact that uncovering pieces of brain matter among these volcanic eruption victims is rare. Even when scientists do find samples of brain tissue, they typically take on a soap-like texture, which occurs during a process called saponification, when triglycerides in the fatty brain tissue react to charged particles in the environment.
“To date, vitrified remains of the brain have never been found,” Pier Paolo Petrone, a professor of human osteobiology and forensic anthropology at Italy’s Federico II University Hospital in Naples and a co-author of the study, told The Guardian.
The circumstances of the man’s death could explain how his brain matter hardened into black glass instead of taking on a softer form. Petrone, who was also involved in previous studies examining Vesuvius victims, discovered the unusual brain matter inside the man’s cranial cavity.
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