00:03Mount Vesuvius. It erupted nearly 2,000 years ago. It's likely most known for destroying the
00:09city of Pompeii, turning many of the town's residents into ash-covered statues lasting
00:13thousands of years. But the eruption also destroyed several other cities, including
00:17Herculaneum. And now researchers say one of the preserved bodies found there in the 1960s
00:22has intact brain cells. Forensic anthropologist Pierre Paolo Petrone told CNN he noticed some
00:28glassy material, shining from within the skull while working around it back in 2018. But upon
00:33closer study, he and his team realized the shine was created by the victim's brain after it was
00:37rapidly heated by the volcano's eruption and then rapidly cooled, turning the brain into glass.
00:43They say nearby debris allowed them to calculate that the eruption produced temperatures of more
00:47than 932 degrees Fahrenheit, providing perfectly preserved glass brain cells, which researchers
00:52say will allow them to study the brain of a 2,000-year-old person, something that until now
00:57was unprecedented. The study's findings were published in the journal Plus One.
