When Did Humans First Harness Fire?

Episode 2 of 5



Earth didn't always have the capacity for fire but once it was finally able to, when did our early human ancestors harness its full power?

+ + + + + + + +

Previous Episode:


+ + + + + + + +

Sources:

Great Oxidation Event: More oxygen through multicellularity:

“The appearance of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere led to the Great Oxidation Event. This was triggered by cyanobacteria producing oxygen that was used by multicellular forms as early as 2.3 billion years ago."

Evidence of earliest known wildfires:


“The Late Devonian was the interval in Earth history during which forests first
spread over large areas of the landscape (Scheckler, in press). Like modern forests, these
earliest forests must have been dynamic ecosystems subject to cycles of disturbance and
regeneration."

Devonian Period: Climate, Animals & Plants:

“The Devonian Period occurred from 416 million to 358 million years ago. It was the fourth period of the Paleozoic Era. It was preceded by the Silurian Period and followed by the Carboniferous Period."

Archaeologists Find Earliest Evidence of Humans Cooking With Fire:

“At the base of a brush-covered hill in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, a massive stone outcropping marks the entrance to one of humanity’s oldest known dwelling places."

+ + + + + + + +

TestTube Plus is built for enthusiastic science fans seeking out comprehensive conversations on the geeky topics they love. Host Trace Dominguez digs beyond the usual scope to deliver details, developments and opinions on advanced topics like AI, string theory and Mars exploration. TestTube Plus is also offered as an audio podcast on iTunes.

+ + + + + + + +




+ + + + + + + +

[ShawnRavenfire]

"We didn't start the fire.  It was always burning since the world's been turning." ~ Billy Joel

[mandalorian_guy]

I'm staring at your shirt the entire video.

[Savin]

Love this channel and love these series, they're very interesting and very well presented. Keep it up!

[dockomockopocko]

I have another theory, which sounds possible at least to me, humans were looking for warmth during a thunder storm, lightning hits a tree which creates a fire, you feel the warmth and the fire goes out, this cycles and the next couple times of this happening, we realize putting plants on the "hot material" creates heat so we repeat this process and someone grabbed a plant and threw it in the fire and they got blown away, saw some insane galactic vision so they did it again, that plant was marijuana which is why we are high as fuck and everybody reading this sees that this makes sense because how else would we discover what smoking a plant can do

[welshcelt]

"Song lyrics about fire" - Some musician

[PhamNET]

There must have been a period where humans knew how to contain fires but had not able to produce their own friction fire.

[cwcorella]

8:17 - I thought TestTube was past the whole "just a theory" thing. It's not that difficult to say hypothesis instead, is it?

[Hoopfan]

staying warm means less calories spent on heating oneself and being able to put more towards brain growth and power

[JoseGranny]

This reminds me of the reports of arsonist birds. Typically, ravens. What they do is snatch a burning twig from, say, a forest fire and spread it to lower brush. When the smaller animals run away from the fire and into the open, they become bird food. Maybe, some animals had a better understanding of fire before humans ever did.

[jefftrag]

Lava does not have fire sometimes before there was plants?

[farasapt]

i love how trace looks at his laptop and then the camera as he was spontaneouslly talking about fire while he moves his hand to distract us

[nomokowiz]

TestTube you are doing a great job but please add some pictures or cartoons in your videos. This is good for podcast n stuff but for viewers it gets boring. Goodluck

[renegadebehavior]

Dylon brought the fire when he first spat it

[blackhorsered]

Could you guys do some research on Fashion? Why its important for some people to look good, and what attracts people to fabrics now compared with last sentries?

[johnossendorf]

Uuummm, so hydrogen came after plants ? I don't think so ! HYDROGEN, helium and OXYGEN make up more than 99.9% of the universe, and you think fire needed plants to exist. The ignition point of hydrogen is 500c/932f. I'm fairly confident that hydrogen was flammable and fire existed before solid fuel was around to make any easily detectable ash.

[azoresplayah]

This fallacious notion that cookin' food is what jett'd the evolutionary process for mankind is complete rubbish; we harness'd fire & made implements/tools before consumin' cook'd meals -- paradoxical theory, i'd say. Still & all, gr8 Utube channel.      ॐAmitabha

[kiana]

Anyone interested in human evolution and various turning points for our species would enjoy reading "Return to the Brain of Eden: Restoring the Connection between Neurochemistry and Consciousness"...the information presented makes a strong case, using neuroscience, to suggest that cooked food has actually had a detrimental impact to our health and evolution. I used to think agriculture was the downfall of humanity but perhaps it could be fire. Furthermore, the assumption that we are more evolved now vs 200K years ago is a very skewed perspective considering it is now that we are only using a small portion of our brains with left hemisphere dominance. Why would this be considered progress? We have clearly devolved.

[osonhouston]

This is a science channel please don't mix the word theory and scientific theory, you only feed the trolls. Many of us know what you meant but there are those who would use what you say to prove that evolution is "just a theory"

[omerazhar]

The following is the first verse of the Quran:
“Read read in the name of thy lord who created created man from a drop of congealed blood read and thy lord is most bountiful who taught the pen and taught man that which he knew not”.
REPLY if you have any confusions I’ll always reply.

[captainredbeard]

Just a friendly reminder: you still have to do cloning. Then electronics, quantum physics, and DMT. Then, if you want, spies.