Fire

Taming Fire, THE FIRST SCIENTIST?
By Mary Beth Cox
Odyssey: Adventures in Science

Being the first one to play with fire, not be afraid of fire, what would that feel like? Investigations about who among our ancestors was the first one to use fire has always been in peoples minds, even though we can't entirely answer that question, we have some evidence. Even thought fire is dangerous, early humans have overcome their fear and became interested in the benefits they would get if they started using fire. Wildfires were something they were all used to, because of the dry areas, thunderstorms and natural causes would create fires causing the inhabitants to move out or die. Until now we always had the evidence that humans used fire at least 250,000 years ago were as 1/4 of a million years ago hearths began appearing. Hearths, according to the article, "are rudimentary fireplaces, often identified by a ring of rocks that outline them."Around these hearths tools, bones and burned animal bones were found. From this we now think the use of fire was probably starting 1,000,000 years ago. Near the Swartkrans caves, found in South Africa, signs of fire were also found. From all the evidence scientists have gathered, they assume our ancestors used fire for cooking food, cold weather, light and surviving. Lastly, we believe everywhere our ancestors went, they figured out a way of creating fire, sometimes they didn't necessarily want to, but they did.

I personally think it is interesting figuring where fire started and find our ancestors courageous, it takes some people with will and fearless to accomplish tasks like that. By little steps like this, our brains started developing.
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"Perhaps most importantly, experimentation with fire showed that prehistoric humans could observe a natural phenomenon, try to understand it and then put it to good use."

Cox, Mary Beth. "Taming Fire THE FIRST SCIENTIST?" Odyssey: Adventures in Science Oct. 209: 29-30. 

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