Taming Fire: The First Scientist

TAMING FIRE: THE FIRST SCIENTIST? 

NOTES 

This article, "Taming fire: The first scientist" is an article about how, when, and why our ancestors started to use fire. In the article they talk about how for a very long time humans were quite frightened and curious about the great power of fire. Scientists think that humans have been using fire for at least 250,000 years but some think that we have been using it for at least 1,000,000 years. They think that humans first got fire by getting it from natural fires. Some examples of this are from lightning and forest fires. Later, humans were able to control fire. They did this by creating hearths. Hearths are a very simple form of a fireplace, and were usually just a ring of rocks to prevent fire from spreading. Scientists know this because unburned and intact tools were found near hearths, proving that they could control fire. Also fire from hearths are at a higher temperature than wildfires. So the more burnt objects were obviously from a hearth. The author also talks a lot about the purpose of fire. We used fire for several different purposes. One of these purposes was that we used it for cooking meat. By cooking our meat it made it softer and easier to chew. It also killed any dangerous bacteria and parasites, hidden in the meat. Additionally, we used fire for keeping ourselves warm and scaring off animals.  Fire was used for light, as well. By having a source of light at night, we could work even when it's dark. This provided them with a longer day. I think this is a very good article because the author gives both sides of an argument. He talked about how some scientists think that we started to use fire 250,000 years ago and some say 1,000,000 years ago. There is one bad thing about this article. I personally think the author could have added more facts and information. This is such a broad topic and I think he leaves a lot of loose ends.