Throughout my life I have been curious about human evolution wanting to answer questions like how did humanity figure out how to cook? Or figure out how to work with metal? History is incredible; looking back at the achievements of our species, good and bad, is an invaluable way to learn about our potential for the future.
I’ve always wondered, as I baked a cake or cookies, why did a distant ancestor mix this powder and some water together then leave it beside a fire? And after they did, why did they decide to eat it? Spices are another area of true amazement; how early humans devised that through mixing we could create a wide array of flavors, a particular task that many are still experimenting with.
Another fascinating area of human achievement is smelting and the subsequent smithing of metals. Then how these became so desirable that one would relinquish a useful tool to possess it. Ages of the past are named after metals- the bronze and iron ages-but where did humans gain the ability to produce them? These metals, usually found in hunks of rocks filled with impurities, require high temperatures to melt and thus flow from these rocks. The melted metal would flow like water through the fire creating an amazing show, but somewhere along the way between throwing random rocks in the fire to isolating the rocks because of the desire to find metal someone decided to pour the liquid metal into a shape to create an object. This ambitious person steered the entire course of human evolution providing the tools that would be used to build the civilizations from the Assyrians to today.
Zach Davis, North Carolina
Student, Researcher
I’ve always wondered, as I baked a cake or cookies, why did a distant ancestor mix this powder and some water together then leave it beside a fire? And after they did, why did they decide to eat it? Spices are another area of true amazement; how early humans devised that through mixing we could create a wide array of flavors, a particular task that many are still experimenting with.
Another fascinating area of human achievement is smelting and the subsequent smithing of metals. Then how these became so desirable that one would relinquish a useful tool to possess it. Ages of the past are named after metals- the bronze and iron ages-but where did humans gain the ability to produce them? These metals, usually found in hunks of rocks filled with impurities, require high temperatures to melt and thus flow from these rocks. The melted metal would flow like water through the fire creating an amazing show, but somewhere along the way between throwing random rocks in the fire to isolating the rocks because of the desire to find metal someone decided to pour the liquid metal into a shape to create an object. This ambitious person steered the entire course of human evolution providing the tools that would be used to build the civilizations from the Assyrians to today.
Zach Davis, North Carolina
Student, Researcher