A Pyrotechnic History of Humanity: Fire
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is the first in a four-part series looking at the energy revolutions that drove human history. In this programme Justin Rowlatt goes right back to the origin of our species two million years ago to explore how the mastery of fire by early humans transformed our metabolism, helping us to evolve our uniquely energy-hungry brains.
The physical evidence for early use of fire is frustratingly thin on the ground, according to archaeologist Carolina Mallol. But primatologist Jill Pruetz says she has learned a lot from observing chimpanzees interact with wildfires on the African savanna.
Research collaborators Rachel Carmody and Richard Wrangham theorise that our ancestors' unique ability to cook their food transformed the way our bodies access the energy it contains - something Justin seeks to test out by going on a raw food diet. The bounty of metabolic energy it delivered may have enabled us to become the formidably intelligent species we are today, according to neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel, transforming us into prolific hunters who conquered the world.
Producer: Laurence Knight Presenter: Justin Rowlatt Studio manager: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Zoe Gelber Editor: Rosamund Jones
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.0 | BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello and welcome to Seriously from BBC Radio 4. I'm Justin Rollat. |
| 0:45.0 | You're about to hear the first episode of A Pyrotechnic history of humanity, |
| 0:50.0 | my four-part series which looks at the energy revolutions that have driven human history. |
| 0:56.0 | First up is fire. How did the mastery of fire and the energy it released give our ancestors intelligence? To hear the rest of the series with |
| 1:05.0 | episodes on agriculture and fossil fuels just search for a pyrotechnic history of |
| 1:11.0 | humanity on BBC Sounds. |
| 1:15.0 | All action, all movement is driven by energy. |
| 1:20.0 | Nothing can happen without energy. |
| 1:22.0 | Jeffrey West is a physicist at the Santa Fe Institute in America. |
| 1:27.0 | Not just the motion of the planets around the sun or the motion of your automobile, |
| 1:31.0 | but even to have a dream at night requires energy. |
| 1:35.1 | Energy is underlying everything. |
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