
Evidence that human ancestors used fire one million years ago - J3L2404
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162548.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
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huherto
I suppose it is possible that the "control of fire" was discovered and
forgotten many times in the history of human kind.

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unimpressive
There have been many things like this in human history. (See: The English
learning how to cure scurvy, and then forgetting it.)

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BasLeijdekkers
This means fire was used before homo sapiens existed, fascinating. We might
have evolved to eat cooked/roasted food.

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alexqgb
Rather, we became our big brained selves _because_ our progenitors cooked
their food.

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dhughes
Not even just the food I think fire was used to stay warm on cold days, a huge
advantage, and was used far before food was cooked.

Nothing drains like being cold and having the ability to make fire would be a
massive change.

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windsurfer
I do believe that if a human nowadays were to try to eat purely raw
vegetables, their digestive system wouldn't be able to extract enough calories
per day to make up for the energy used to digest and stay alive. Cooking food
reduces the amount of energy required to digest, effectively increasing the
caloric value of foods.

Staying warm seems so unimportant compared to doubling or tripling your
effective food supply.

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ChuckMcM
The raw food movement would disagree but it's a valid point. Cooking does two
things, both softens food and enables chemical reactions which create useful
sugars.

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freehunter
I'll admit I don't stay current on the latest trends in human diet, but I know
some coworkers who are proponents of raw foods _specifically_ because they are
harder to digest. They say there's more fiber, more bulk, and fewer useful
sugars (simple carbs being bad for you). When they eat foods raw that normally
would be cooked, they're taking in fewer calories and filling up faster. As
the food is broken down slowly, they are given nutrition throughout the day
without eating more. This is their claim.

As I admit though, I don't know if this is the same as the dietary movement
we're talking about. I don't know any amount of science in either direction.

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ChuckMcM
That is the same bunch, they would refute the statement

"... if a human nowadays were to try to eat purely raw vegetables, their
digestive system wouldn't be able to extract enough calories per day to make
up for the energy used to digest and stay alive."

Which is in the antecedent comment.

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freehunter
I guess what I missed in my post (deliberately) was tying this diet to weight
loss. To lose weight, simply put, you take in fewer calories than you burn to
stay alive. That's the gist of why my coworkers do it. If they get 1400
calories usefully extracted from their diet but they need 2000, they lose 600
calories every day, 600 calories which the body then makes up by burning fat.
Even if they could extract 2500 just from cooking the food.

The human body is incredibly designed to not die if you don't eat anything.
Basically, you have to not eat anything PLUS not have any useful fat left to
burn PLUS not have any extra muscle to burn. Almost everyone in the Western
world could go a month without eating and only suffer from lethargy and
possibly a lack of non-fat-soluble vitamins. Eat nothing but take a
multivitamin and you're theoretically good to go for months. There was the
study published on one man who fasted for a full year and suffered no health
detriment.

I tried to dodge that direct statement in my original post because I am not a
health professional, I know nothing of the science behind the diet, and I'm
not trying to make the argument that the diet would be a "good" way to lose
weight.

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thangalin
I drew a Cosmic Calendar, inspired by Carl Sagan's idea.

<http://i.imgur.com/h6vYI.jpg>

Looks like the time-line for fire needs to change. ;-)

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thangalin
In case anyone would like it at a higher resolution, or cares to add their own
interesting events, the source SVG file is in the public domain:

<http://www.mediafire.com/?h57lwc1c7poesw0>

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EREFUNDO
If non-Homo Sapiens like Neanderthals and the more primitive Homo-Erectus
learned how to control fire, I am beginning to wonder if Homo Sapiens actually
figured it out on their own given the fact that there is now mounting evidence
that we co-existed with a handful of these early hominids for several
millennia.

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Oltmann
It is worth pointing out that controlling and maintaining fire is distinct
from knowledge of techniques to build fire ex nihilo. There are still groups
that lack that technology.

<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese_people>

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yelongren
And fire past sunset must have been a huge boost to socialization and safety
of the tribe.

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cristianpascu
Or dating methods are all messed up. :)

