Related: " Surprise! But based on evidence from ancient bones, spears, and porridge, Speth believes our Stone Age cousins likely boiled their food. He suggests that Neanderthals boiled using only a skin bag or a birch bark tray by relying on a trick of chemistry: Water will boil at a temperature below the ignition point of almost any container, even flammable bark or hides. His presentation included video of water boiling in a paper cup the water keeps the paper from reaching its ignition temperature and mention of scenes in Jean Auel's novel, Clan of the Cave Bear later a movie , in which Neanderthals boiled stews in hide pouches.
While conceding that Neanderthals were handy with wood and fire, archaeologists such as Mary Stiner of the University of Arizona in Tucson want to let Speth's idea simmer for a while before they swallow it. The use of fire by humans goes back more than , years in Europe, where evidence is seen in Neanderthal hearths. But most research has supported the idea that Stone Age boiling, which relied on heating stones in fire pits and dropping them into water, arrived on the scene too late for Neanderthals.
Evidence of cracked "boiling stones" in caves used by early modern humans , for example, goes back only about 26, years, too recent for Neanderthals. And pottery for more conventional boiling appears to be only about 20, years old.
But who needs boiling stones or pots? Speth suggests that Neanderthals boiled foods in birch bark twisted into trays, a technology that prehistoric people used to boil maple syrup from tree sap. Archaeologists have demonstrated that Neanderthals relied on birch tar as an adhesive for hafting spear points as long as , years ago. Making birch tar requires clever cooking in an oxygen-free container, says paleontologist Michael Bisson of Canada's McGill University.
They likely ignited rolled-up birch bark "cigars" and plunged them into holes to cook the tar in an oxygen-free environment. Supporting the boiling idea, Speth said that animal bones found in Neanderthal settings are 98 percent free of scavenger's gnawing marks, which he says suggests the fat had been cooked off. And some grains found in the teeth of a Neanderthal buried in Iraq's Shanidar Cave site appear to have been cooked, according to a Proceedings of the National Academies of Science report.
In a separate talk at the meeting, University of Michigan paleontologist Andrew White noted recent evidence that Neanderthal mothers weaned their children at an earlier age than human mothers typically do.
He said the early transition from milk to food supports the theory that Neanderthals boiled their youngsters' food to make it more digestible. The idea that Neanderthals could probably boil their food first came to Speth as he watched an episode of the TV show Survivorman. Stuck in East Africa with only dirty water to drink, host Les Stroud sterilized the muddy liquid by boiling it in a plastic bag.
Correction: The discplines of two experts mentioned in the story, Dr. In the 9th century B. A skin was hung, fur side out, from sticks to form a container which was filled with water and then hot rocks taken from a fire pit. This caused the water to heat and eventually boil.
Hot Rocks. He suggests that Neanderthals boiled using only a skin bag or a birch bark tray by relying on a trick of chemistry: Water will boil at a temperature below the ignition point of almost any container, even flammable bark or hides.
This is where the first heat-loving microbes were discovered almost 50 years ago by the microbiologist Thomas Brock. Although, some bacterial spores not typically associated with water borne disease are capable of surviving boiling conditions e.
Boiling is sufficient to kill pathogenic bacteria, viruses and protozoa WHO, If water is cloudy, let it settle and filter it through a clean cloth, paperboiling water towel, or coffee filter. Bring water to a rolling boil for at least one minute. This early pottery was made by just pushing a hole into a ball of clay, or by making a long snake of clay and coiling it up into a pot shape.
These rock plates are called tectonic plates, and they are so huge that the North American plate lies under Cuba, the United States, Canada, and Greenland, while the Eurasian plate lies under Europe and most of Asia.
At several spots, beautiful volcanic islands came up from the ocean floor after a very long period of time. One group of such volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean is called the Azores.
The Azores are located almost halfway between the United States and Portugal, while Iceland can be found in the very north between Greenland and Norway. These islands are covered with hot springs.
Hot springs naturally discharge hot water, and they occur, because there is a lot of heat deep underground and the water circulates into these deep areas before it reaches the surface. If you go for a walk on the Azores, you will see that the water is constantly fuming and boiling Figure 1.
Most hot springs and geysers , which eject hot water and steam in a fountain, can be found in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA. This is where the first heat-loving microbes were discovered almost 50 years ago by the microbiologist Thomas Brock. Thomas Brock isolated and described the first heat-loving microbe and gave it the beautiful name Thermus aquaticus [ 2 ] Figure 2.
Since there are no English names for most microbes, we will use scientific names in this article, which will be explained in detail Box 1. Scientists often use words that are hard to understand, including Latin or Greek names for well-known organisms.
Ok, it is quite easy to understand that Rattus rattus is the scientific name for the black rat. Hippopotamus amphibius is the hippopotamus, and it is even simpler to recognize that Gorilla gorilla is the western gorilla, but what does Thermus aquaticus mean?
Note that the first word of a scientific name indicates the genus, or category in which the organism belongs. The genus name is abbreviated by its first letter in scientific writing when used for the second time in an article T.
The second word in the name is the species name, which indicates the specific kind of organism. There are often several species existing that belong to the same genus, e. The name T. Although Thomas Brock found this first heat-loving microbe, he did not find one that could withstand boiling water. However, the discovery of T.
Scientists quickly realized that extremophiles are very common. They are so common that it is impossible to estimate how many more species will be discovered in the future. Another important step in the discovery of extremophiles was reached when Karl Stetter from Germany presented another interesting microbe to the microbiology community. Stetter and his team found this microbe in the deep sea, where hot water streamed out through a chimney from below the tectonic plates, and they called this microbe Pyrolobus fumarii.
This microbe displays a strange, lumpy-looking cell structure.
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