Taming Fire

Odyssey: Adventures in Science
October 2009 pg 29-30

Fire, it might not mean much to you, but nearly 1 million years ago fire was the link to life. It gave light, heat and the power to cook things or boil to get rid of bacteria. But who found out about it and how? According to scientists the Swartkrans 1 million years ago found out about fire. But how did they do that. They probably saw fire somewhere else like from storms or bush fires and they probably tried to replicate that. First they probably put a stick on fire from another naturally made fire, from that they tried to make it with heat, because it burnt them so they thought it was heat. There is also one more thing beside using it for cooking and other stuff, they can wrap certain plants together and put it in the fire to get a smoke to repel mosquitos and other insects at night.

So today fire is replaced with stoves, heaters and other appliances, but millions years ago this was the universal heater, stove, alarm to keep other people away and boiler.

Last Human Standing

Today, there is only one human. But Thousands of years ago there were not only one kind of humans, but many.They were bigger stronger and they had bigger brains. So the big question is WHY. Scientists have to look back to the bones they found of Homo-Sapiens and other humans found. According to the Nova video, many factors helped us survive. One of these such factors can be migration, the moving of people to find more food and space to live might of explained a part of the story. The moving to other regions means different food and climate. Neanderthals had a diet of only meat, which is good for muscle but other nutrition is needed, also the Neanderthals lived in a region that has cold weather. Cold weather drains energy and not a lot of food is found. The climate and food could of helped Homo-Sapiens as they lived in a drier climate with more food. But these are not the only factors that could explain. The brain power of humans is also something discussed. The Neanderthals had a bigger brain, but the speech and memory would not have been better than ours. According to the video, the Parietal Lobe and Temporal Lobe (Used for memory and speech) would have been smaller due to the skull endocast. This would make a different complexion. Also the different brains would have resulted to different thinking and making of tools. Cro-magnons were the first sophisticated tool makers. The Neanderthals had not as sophisticated tools as the Homo-sapiens. The Neanderthals had to get up close and personal to the animal to kill it resulting to injuries and a low life rate for the species. But the Homo-sapiens could of made spears that can be thrown. But the Homo-sapiens did not only eat meat like the Neanderthals, they ate sea food which the Neanderthals could not do because of there thinking and weather. Homo-sapiens had to know the tides, the tides would be very different, they would be higher because the moon would be closer. One thing started, art and culture. The thinking made them think there was after life and curiosity also contributed.

So as you can see not only one factor made us survive, but many all together. The migration, food, climate, brain,skull, tools, hunting, culture would result to us surviving.