ITALY: Death was quick—but gruesome—for the victims of the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. New analysis of residue on the skeletons of people trapped along the waterfront in the town of Herculaneum suggests that exposure to extreme heat may have been their cause of death, not asphyxiation, as has traditionally been thought. Herculaneum and other nearby towns were hit with a fastmoving cloud of ash and gas that reached temperatures of 900°F. This vaporized blood, bodily fluids, and brain matter, literally causing heads to explode.