The brain preservation paradox — the discovery of well-preserved human brains among otherwise skeletal remains — has puzzled archaeologists and pathologists alike for decades. Now, new research finally provides a scientific explanation for this longstanding mystery.
"We found that brain preservation isn't a rare anomaly, it's a novel chemical pathway," first study author Alexandra Seviour, a doctoral researcher of paleobiology at the University of Oxford, told Live Science in an email about the new work, published June 19 in the Journal of Proteome Research. "Under the right conditions, preservation actually arises from decay itself: the same reactions that degrade tissue can also weld the breakdown products together into something far tougher."
