A 2,000-year-old brain at the site of a devastating natural disaster …



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A recent Italian study revealed well-preserved brain cells within the remains of a young man who died in the Vesuvius eruption nearly two thousand years ago, according to “Sky News.”

Brain cells were discovered in the form of glass at the archaeological site of “Herculaneum”, an ancient Roman city submerged under volcanic ash following the eruption of the nearby volcano Vesuvius in AD 79. C.

The study’s lead author, Pierre Paolo Petron, an anthropologist at the University of Naples Federico II, said that studying brain tissue found at Herculaneum may save lives in the future, adding: “The data and information we obtain will allow us to clarify many aspects related to what happened. Two thousand years ago during the months of an eruption. “

According to the British newspaper “The Guardian”, the victim whose samples were examined belonged to a man in his 20s, whose remains were discovered in the 1960s scattered on a wooden bed.

According to the scientists, the intense heat of the volcanic eruption and the rapid cooling that followed, turned the brain material into a glassy one, causing the nerve structures to freeze and leave them intact.

The team of researchers who completed the study, the results of which were published in the scientific journal PLoS One, noted that the rapid decrease in temperature witnessed by vitreous brain tissue is a unique feature of volcanic processes that occur during the eruption.

The currents of ash, rocks and gases, which rose dramatically in the city of Herculaneum after the eruption of Vesuvius, were so hot that they ignited body fat and evaporated soft tissues almost immediately, followed by a sudden drop in temperature.

The scientists were able to show that the black glass shards were once a human brain by identifying specific proteins normally found in brain tissue, which were not present in nearby ash.

Sky News reported that the volcano Vesuvius, located on the western coast of Naples in Italy, had covered the neighboring Roman cities of Pompeii Herculaneum with volcanic ash and molten rocks in minutes, killing thousands.



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