Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A new discovery of baked sediments, artifacts, and pieces of firelighting pyrite in a UK claypit suggests that humans already had ...

What do sawdust, a mineral commonly associated with wastewater facilities, and an enzyme derived from watermelon seeds have in common? Based on new research, these seemingly unrelated materials could ...

It's easy to take for granted that with the flick of a lighter or the turn of a furnace knob, modern humans can conjure flames — cooking food, lighting candles or warming homes. For much of our ...

BurnBot is a huge, Zamboni-like vehicle that executes precisely controlled burns of flammable grass alongside buildings and roadways. It’s designed to create fire breaks — lines of charred land — that ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The discovery of a Neanderthal fire pit in southeastern England has revealed that fire was made by humans at least 400,000 years ago. Previously, it ...

Fragments of iron pyrite, a rock that can be used with flint to make sparks, were found by a 400,000-year-old hearth in eastern Britain. (Jordan Mansfield | Courtesy Pathways to Ancient Britain ...