Combustion

"Around a million years ago, at the very beginning of the biggest disruption to life’s energetic capabilities since the emergence of cyanobacteria, humans learned to harness a new kind of energy source: combustion. 


"Our ancestors cooked food, using fire as a form of digestion to assist the work of teeth, jaws and guts on tough, raw foods. 

"Fire kept our ancestors warm without fur, scared off predators and cleared landscapes for hunting. 

"One evolutionary response to this extracorporeal bounty of energy was a growth in brain size and specialization, including the development of a bigger prefrontal cortex. 

"As a consequence, humans are smart, cooperative and exceptionally social. Those traits made us capable of a remarkable phase change in evolution."

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