The Buzz: Is That Evolution I Smell?

i-3acd69b2af1c081a01e0c47925206b72-bonfire.jpg

In the course of anthropological history, several developments served to set humans apart from other mammals: Tools, language, and domestication all played an instrumental role in shaping our evolution. Now, Razib of Gene Expression reviews a recently published book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, that argues that the ability to extract maximum energy from food through cooking was the crucial factor in making Homo sapiens the planet's dominant species. In addition to releasing a greater number of calories per unit consumed, cooking also helped free up time and energy. "Instead of chewing for 3 or 4 hours, we simply cook for a time and we can chew the food with relative ease," explains Razib. Ethan Siegel of Starts With a Bang agrees with the importance of cooking, but offers a few additional explanations for humans' increased productivity.

More like this

As you know, Webster Cook was Impeached by his school government for his role in Crackergate. Then, the impeachment was overturned. But this meant that he would be re-impeached ... the appellate system does not really overturn an impeachment in this case, but rather, sends it back.
Our household is very excited about Thanksgiving.
The ‘Nifty Fifty (times 4)’, a program of Science Spark, presented by InfoComm International, are a group of 200 noted science and engineering professionals who will fan out
Cooking turkey is actually kind of a dumb idea. Most people don't ever cook turkey. Turkey is like chicken ... it's a domestic bird that is familiar to all Americans ... but it is very difficult to cook in a way that does not ruin it.