In the first, inaugural episode of the Chemistry Timeline, we travel back to the first time hominins harnessed chemistry. How did fire come to be part of our everyday lives, and how did it change our biology, our social skills, and our understanding of the material world?
References:
Attila, Y. (2018). The history of fire use and its effects on human sociality. DergiPark, 4(2), 112–125.
Gowlett, J. A. J. (2016). The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1696), 20150164. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164
Huang, C., Li, J., & Gao, X. (2022). Evidence of fire use by Homo erectus pekinensis: An XRD study of archaeological bones from Zhoukoudian Locality 1, China. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9, Article 811319. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.811319
Marin-Monfort, M. D., Shaw, C. L., Natalio, F., Grossman, L., Andrews, P., Campos, J., & Fernández-Jalvo, Y. (2026). New evidence for Early Pleistocene use of fire at Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa). PLoS ONE, 21(6), e0347480. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347480
Roebroeks, W., & Villa, P. (2011). On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(13), 5209–5214. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1018116108
Wiessner, P. W. (2014). Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(39), 14027–14033. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111
Wrangham, R. (2009). Catching fire: How cooking made us human. Basic Books.
Script writing, recording and editing done by me, Jake. Sound effects and backing music from Pixabay.
Noticed a mistake? Let me know at thechemistrytimelinepod@gmail.com
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Chapters:
(00:00) Intro
(03:03) Act 1: The Microscopic Mosh Pit (The Science of Combustion)
(09:05) Act 2: The Pyrophilic Primate & The Muddy Evidence
(14:02) Act 3: How Cooking Rewrote the Human Anatomy
(18:07) Act 4: The Fireside Social Network
(21:33) Conclusion
