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Scientists Burned Their Own Scrolls. Then The Hidden Writing Lit Up.

When Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, it devastated the nearby Roman city of Herculaneum with scorching gas, ash, and earthquakes that suffocated its streets, toppled masonry, and even turned one man's brain to glass.  Much of the city was destroyed, and its people were vaporized, yet its library full of arcane knowledge has been preserved for posterity by the blanketing ash.   In 1752 CE, excavations sponsored by the Bourbon kings of nearby Naples unearthed a collection that currently contains over 1,800 papyrus scrolls, still in their rolled-up postures.

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