Science
In Their Final Moments, a Pompeii Family Fought to Survive
One day in the year 79, Pompeii came under fire. The explosion of nearby Mount Vesuvius sent a mushroom cloud of ash and rock into the atmosphere, pummeling the ancient Roman trading hub and resort in a ceaseless hail of tiny volcanic rocks.
Many residents ran for their lives, trying to find safety with their loved ones before searing volcanic debris buried the estimated 1,500 residents who remained in Pompeii.
In a study published last month in the journal Scavi di Pompei, scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky, known as lapilli.
The small-but-well-appointed residence is known as the House of Helle and Phrixus, after a richly decorated fresco in the dining room. It depicts the mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle escaping their wicked stepmother on a winged ram only to have Helle fall and, ominously, drown in the sea below.
As with many ancient Roman residences, its atrium, an open-roof room centrally located in the home, was used for ventilation and rainwater collection. But on that day, the recess allowed volcanic rock to more rapidly overtake the space. Most Pompeians “had no clue what was happening,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, an author of the study and the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. “Many thought the end of the world had come,” he added.
In the years that followed, the hot ash that eventually buried the home solidified and left an imprint that archaeologists filled with plaster to reconstruct the shape of the wooden bed that remained. The technique helps illustrate the horror of the Pompeian dead in their final moments and how perishable everyday items made of wood, textiles and leather were situated in their environments.
The skeletal remains of four people, most likely members of the same family, were identified in the study. The lapilli, which reached heights as high as nine feet in some locations, could not be controlled, and researchers believe the people made a final attempt to escape, leaving the small room in which they had barricaded themselves. They got only as far as the triclinium, the formal dining room where their remains were found.
“The family in the House of Helle and Phrixus probably died when the so-called pyroclastic flow, an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gas, arrived and parts of the building collapsed,” Dr. Zuchtriegel said.
He and his colleagues suggest that the remains of the four people found in the home were from a family that stayed behind and may have included some enslaved members who worked at the residence. Still, archaeologists don’t know for sure if they lived there or simply took refuge after the homeowners had already escaped.
“It’s not certain that the individuals found in the house as victims were part of the family,” said Marcello Mogetta, an associate professor of Roman art and archaeology at the University of Missouri who was not involved in the study.
Among the skeletal remains was a bronze bulla that belonged to a child. The ancient amulets were worn like lockets around the necks of young free boys to shield them from danger until they reached adulthood.
“The amulet was supposed to protect them, so there’s a cruel irony to the fact that it didn’t,” said Caitie Barrett, a professor of archaeology at Cornell University who was not involved in the study.
Bourbon explorers sent by Charles III in the 18th century carried out rudimentary excavations of Pompeii that disturbed the skeletal remains of the victims found in the House of Helle and Phrixus. When they tunneled into the residence in search of valuables like jewelry and artwork, they left behind holes in the walls. These early excavators often had little interest in human remains, either in respecting their preservation, dignifying their deaths or studying their material culture.
But today it’s the human toll that feels most prominent for archaeologists and for many of the visitors who regularly pour into Pompeii. Whether or not the remains belonged to those who were indeed family will be something that researchers may try to uncover through DNA analysis in the near future.
Family or not, it doesn’t change the human tragedy of the story.
“Whatever the nature of their specific relations, they would have been the last people to offer each other comfort at the end,” Dr. Barrett said.
The Pentagon released what it called “new, never-before-seen” files on U.F.O.s on Friday, hailing the step as an example of the commitment of the department, which kicked out reporters earlier this year, to transparency.
“No other president or administration in history has followed through on this level of U.A.P. transparency,” the Pentagon said in a news release, referring to what the Defense Department calls unidentified anomalous phenomena but what most people call U.F.O.s, or unidentified flying objects.
The collection is being “housed,” the release said, at war.gov/ufo. Files will be released on a rolling basis.
The initial files are murky still images that show what could be anything. In one, a cluster of dots appear on the screen. In another, there are some strangely shaped objects.
President Trump on social media framed the release as fulfilling a promise to the public: “Whereas previous Administrations have failed to be transparent on this subject, with these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?””
In 2017 The New York Times reported that the Pentagon had a secret and classified program, which began in 2007, that investigated reports of unidentified flying objects. Since then, there has been a push from lawmakers for the government to declassify its work on U.F.O.s.
Former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, took to social media to deride the release, calling it “‘look at the shiny object’ propaganda” while the administration waged foreign wars.
“Unless they roll out live aliens and test demo UFOs or actually admit what we know this really is then I have way better things to do on this Friday,” she wrote.
new video loaded: Pentagon Releases U.F.O. Files
By Jorge Mitssunaga
May 8, 2026
President Trump has signed off on a plan to fire Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, after a series of clashes over vaping, oversight of the abortion pill and a series of new drug application denials that rattled biotech companies, according to a person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Dr. Makary had a high profile for an F.D.A. commissioner, appearing frequently on television and podcasts to sell the work he was doing at the agency on improving the food supply, speeding up some drug approvals and trying to restore agency morale after thousands of staff members left.
He tried to walk the tightrope between the business-friendly Make America Great Again movement, pledging to get rid of regulations that slow down innovation and to attract more drug trials to the United States. He was an ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make American Healthy Again supporters, voicing the skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry and authorizing natural food dyes.
Ultimately, Dr. Makary’s efforts were not enough to overcome the grievances of a growing band of enemies focused on selling tobacco, opposing abortion and seeing biotech therapies authorized.
Mr. Trump’s decision to dismiss him was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The decision could still change, given Mr. Trump’s propensity to change his mind Dr. Makary has also proven persuasive with Mr. Trump in beating back previous efforts to oust him.
Leaving the White House Friday evening, Mr. Trump dismissed the idea that Dr. Makary would be fired.
“I’ve been reading about it, but I know nothing about it,” he said.
The White House has pressured Dr. Makary for months to authorize flavored e-cigarettes, according to a person close to the conversations. The approvals were a top wish of major tobacco companies that have been top donors to Mr. Trump. In March, the F.D.A. issued a memo saying that it would only authorize e-cigarettes in flavors such as mint, tea and spices. The memo said the fruit and candy flavors would be unlikely to pass muster, given their appeal to young people.
Pressure continued, though, and on Tuesday the F.D.A. authorized blueberry and mango flavored e-cigarettes by Glas, a small company based in Los Angeles.
Abortion foes including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have continued to turn up the heat on Dr. Makary, reiterating their call for his firing on Thursday. The group’s leaders and others view Dr. Makary as dragging his feet on a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone, which they viewed as a way to highlight what they believe are dangers of the drug. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who also opposes abortion rights, amplified criticism of Dr. Makary on social media as well.
The administration has been under pressure from conservatives to tighten regulations on the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone. The Supreme Court is reviewing a federal appeals court ruling that temporarily blocked abortion providers from prescribing the drug through telemedicine and sending it to patients by mail.
Biotech companies and their investors have also raised alarms with the White House about agency decisions to reject a series of treatments for rare diseases. The F.D.A. typically turns down about 20 percent of the applications it receives for drug approvals from companies.
Dr. Makary has been aggressive in defending the decisions, which he said came from career scientists who found the medications ineffective.
Dr. Makary also had to contend with a health secretary who seemed to view the F.D.A. as an avenue for getting his favored products authorized, exemplified by Mr. Kennedy’s social media post saying that the agency would end its “war on” stem cell treatments, peptides and raw milk. Mr. Kennedy pushed the F.D.A. to reverse a 2023 ban and allow the use of a number of peptides, unproven compounds purported to offer anti-aging or muscle-recovery benefits.
Before leading the F.D.A., Dr. Makary was a cancer surgeon and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was also the author of several books about the health care system.
Some of Dr. Makary’s more popular moves included encouraging broader use of hormone replacement products for women and lifting the F.D.A.’s warnings on them. He helped speed some promising drugs to market, including a pancreatic cancer therapy and the pill form of the popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs.
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