A shimmering rock found in the ruins of an ancient city has been identified as part of a human brain that exploded due to the heat of a catastrophic volcanic eruption.
That’s the astonishing conclusion of a new study published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, led by Pier Paolo Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Naples Federico II.
“The preservation of ancient brain remains is an extremely rare finding, but this is the first ever discovery of ancient human brain remains, vitrified by heat at about 950°F produced by a volcanic eruption,” Petrone said in an email.
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