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,

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,

Heat from the eruption in A.D. 79 was so intense that it vitrified the brain tissue of one unfortunate Herculaneum resident, a new study confirms.