Why Only Earth Has Fire

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  • Опубликовано: 27 апр 2024
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    To get fire, which exists only on Earth, it took billions of years of photosynthesis - which means fire can’t exist without life. And fire and life have been shaping each other ever since.
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    References: docs.google.com/document/d/1u...
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Комментарии • 2 тыс.

  • @KoneSkirata
    @KoneSkirata 4 месяца назад +545

    Life is older than fire. That's going on the "obscure perspective-changing facts" list.

    • @rstidman
      @rstidman 2 месяца назад +20

      who would want to live in a world where you can't tell someone else to go die in a fire?

    • @therobn
      @therobn 2 месяца назад +2

      They had to come to that conclusion for you? Man basically discovered fire

    • @KoneSkirata
      @KoneSkirata 2 месяца назад

      @therobn The tens of thousands of animals that were vaporized within a thousand kilometer radius around the Yucatan peninsula, as well as the many millions more that were burned alive within a couple thousand kilometers by earth's mantle literally being ejected into space and raining down again in an apocalyptic hellfire of unprecedented proportions in the history of life, to not even mention the billions of plants meeting their demise as molten stone set ablaze entire continents, will be glad to hear that there was no such thing as fire, before mankind discovered it 🤡

    • @avinashreji60
      @avinashreji60 Месяц назад +20

      @@therobn ? that's not true

    • @nottelling7438
      @nottelling7438 Месяц назад +19

      ​@@therobnWe didn't start the fire. Earlier living things did.

  • @kyrerymmukk7446
    @kyrerymmukk7446 4 месяца назад +284

    Uncle Iroh was right, fire really is the breath of life.

  • @Uhshawdude
    @Uhshawdude 4 месяца назад +1294

    The fact that water, fire and life are so interconnected and reliant upon each other to exist on this planet feels poetic in a way. Water creates life, life creates fire, fire consumes life, water douses fire, life is reborn from the ashes of the old.

    • @InquisitorBoomBoom
      @InquisitorBoomBoom 4 месяца назад +41

      I appreciate Terra even more

    • @rgw5991
      @rgw5991 4 месяца назад +10

      awesome!

    • @sntslilhlpr6601
      @sntslilhlpr6601 4 месяца назад +45

      I was thinking that but chemically. At the end of the day it's just moving the same things back and forth.

    • @MissMarilynDarling
      @MissMarilynDarling 4 месяца назад +59

      its like an unending game of rock paper scissors

    • @benwagner5089
      @benwagner5089 4 месяца назад +46

      Puts a whole new spin on "Everything changed when the fire nation attacked."

  • @Artful_Synthesis
    @Artful_Synthesis 2 месяца назад +21

    I don't give PBS enough credit for the knowledge, inspiration and entertainment they have provided to me my entire life. The countless people who have and continued to work to build PBS into the most reliable source of educational entertainment have my thanks.

  • @mst4309
    @mst4309 4 месяца назад +2484

    I think the societal misconceptions with what fire actually is is very overlooked, and what it and plasma and glowing-hot liquid metals are should be more clearly covered in school

    • @OrdinaryCritic
      @OrdinaryCritic 4 месяца назад +50

      Agreed. This is very important.

    • @joser9237
      @joser9237 4 месяца назад +189

      Just to be clear, fire isn't a type of plasma. It *can* have plasma if it were hot enough to ionize atoms and be electrically conductive. Most candles and wood fires are not hot enough to create plasma. The common understanding is that fire is hot glowing gas, much like hot metals glow when sufficiently heated.

    • @julianshepherd2038
      @julianshepherd2038 4 месяца назад +38

      Children and fire.
      What could go wrong.

    • @garettdoornwaard4822
      @garettdoornwaard4822 4 месяца назад +22

      I think they are in Canada because i immediately chuckled at the headline and mockingly thought "maybe because were the ones with oxygen...like some public school stuff?"😂

    • @solalflechelles1216
      @solalflechelles1216 4 месяца назад +63

      @@garettdoornwaard4822 Keep chuckling. There are plenty of planets with oxygen.
      What they don't have is both oxygen and fuel, because they lack a cycle by which both can be continually produced, that is, life.

  • @willmendoza8498
    @willmendoza8498 4 месяца назад +166

    Sometimes a video tells me stuff I already knew, but recontextualizes it in a way that makes it feel brand new. This is one such video.

    • @Neuvost
      @Neuvost 3 месяца назад +5

      knowledge AND wisdom :D

    • @Janziepoo
      @Janziepoo 4 часа назад

      I recognize your profile picture but can't remember where I've seen it! @willmendoza8498

  • @GuyWithAnAmazingHat
    @GuyWithAnAmazingHat 4 месяца назад +34

    It makes so much more sense now why classical elements consider fire an element. I wonder what kind of such "elements" exist out in the universe that we don't even know exist.

  • @chriskirby1879
    @chriskirby1879 4 месяца назад +70

    As a degreed and professional forester. Thank you for this! I wish more people would fully understand this!

    • @Nickfromcali
      @Nickfromcali 4 месяца назад +4

      Degreed only means you memorized enough things to pass the final at the end of the year. As someone who works in chemicals, I know this idea of fire needing organic matter to burn is simply not true

    • @manicangel7796
      @manicangel7796 4 месяца назад +2

      As a degreed person, one would believe you would not write a fragmented sentence.

    • @user-ds8rj2vc4v
      @user-ds8rj2vc4v 2 месяца назад +1

      @@Nickfromcali
      Not necessarily organic, no, but surely would have to compose of the same elements (in same variation) to release (x)CO2 & (x)H2O?
      But yeah, as a Biologist - I hate the presentation here personally. It makes a lot of presumptions from the get-go, including that only our planet can even support life in the first place.

    • @videogamesarecool9280
      @videogamesarecool9280 13 дней назад

      @@user-ds8rj2vc4vthey did specify 'know planets' and earth is the only planet we currently know of that provably has life

    • @user-ds8rj2vc4v
      @user-ds8rj2vc4v 13 дней назад

      @@videogamesarecool9280
      It's more that they said;
      "It isn't the only watery planet in the universe, but it is the only fiery planet"
      Which doesn't mention about "known planets" just outright stated it's the only one.
      So far, we've been to like two planets. Including our own. So it's a bit of a bold statement to make.

  • @Hi_Im_Akward
    @Hi_Im_Akward 4 месяца назад +1217

    I've always wondered how grasslands could be the dominant biome for an area without it getting taken over by trees. This makes so much sense. I already kind of knew this, I live in an area where land burning is a seasonal phenomenon land owners do (its in a controlled setting) but I really didn't know why. And I had no clue this was an evolved adaptation to benefit the grass. Evolution is crazy and I feel like we as laymen humans forget about the plants but they do some cool stuff.

    • @LaineyBug2020
      @LaineyBug2020 4 месяца назад +26

      I grew up in Kansas where they do the same thing! Nothing quite like the smell of the pastures burning!

    • @skadoodle8503
      @skadoodle8503 4 месяца назад +21

      the world is truly an interesting place, I think we just fail to see it because we are pre occupied by other things such as socmeds, work, studies etc.

    • @giraffelord94
      @giraffelord94 4 месяца назад +48

      The fact that always blows my mind is how long it took for grass to even show up. Like the most basic kind of plant you could imagine, a leaf in the ground, only evolved around 55 million years ago.
      Yes there were grass-like plants back then, but grass itself, like the kind you see every day, didn't show up until so recently.

    • @josem1419
      @josem1419 4 месяца назад +19

      @@giraffelord94 yeah, grass (of any kind) is so ubiquitous I can't imagine a world without it

    • @The_Opinion_of_Matt
      @The_Opinion_of_Matt 4 месяца назад +15

      You should look up what happened to Yellowstone National Park after wolves were reintroduced. It is rather amazing.

  • @timhogan9282
    @timhogan9282 4 месяца назад +378

    I haven't thought about this before. Goes to show you you never stop learning

    • @glennjpanting2081
      @glennjpanting2081 4 месяца назад

      Some people do ..... but that's only because they choose to be ignorant. Poor dumb bastards. 😞

    • @360.Tapestry
      @360.Tapestry 4 месяца назад +2

      where there's life... there's fire

    • @jelly.212
      @jelly.212 4 месяца назад +1

      @@360.Tapestry define life. Because some planets also have life.

    • @thechicken1477
      @thechicken1477 4 месяца назад +8

      ​@@jelly.212 Name one

    • @AlanTheBeast100
      @AlanTheBeast100 4 месяца назад +2

      Regrettably I meet people daily who proved they stop learning. A lot. And young. Sad.

  • @lonjohnson5161
    @lonjohnson5161 4 месяца назад +19

    I really liked this one. It is obvious in retrospect that you can't have fire without life or some other ongoing process, given that chemicals that can vigorously react (burn) on geological time will find each other and react until something is completely consumed (the rusting of the Earth's crust is evidence of that); however, until someone mentions it, you don't really think about it. In other words, I liked this episode because it made me look at what I thought I knew differently.

  • @PikaTigerlilypika
    @PikaTigerlilypika 4 месяца назад +21

    But then the fire planet attacked.

  • @hypocriticalcritic6915
    @hypocriticalcritic6915 4 месяца назад +170

    "Damn, this planet is fire"

    • @fduranthesee
      @fduranthesee 4 месяца назад +10

      no cap, this planet is straight-up bussin'

  • @PendragonDaGreat
    @PendragonDaGreat 4 месяца назад +116

    Earth: Creates Giant Insects:
    Also Earth: Creates fire to deal with said giant insects.

  • @jaiclary8423
    @jaiclary8423 4 месяца назад +3

    The older I get, the less common it is to come across something that truly teaches me something new. This video accomplished it. Thank you.

  • @jkatttt1699
    @jkatttt1699 4 месяца назад +13

    This is something we are missing in modern forest management that has been a contributing factor to the intense wildfire burns we are seeing!!! It's just one piece of the puzzle of course, but the importance of regenerative burning cannot be overstated!

    • @thomaskrug4328
      @thomaskrug4328 Месяц назад

      True enough. Smokey the Bear notwithstanding, it turns out we can't prevent forest fires, only postpone them. Then when they do finally happen, the damage is pretty severe.

  • @paradox7358
    @paradox7358 4 месяца назад +138

    Those fire storms of the Carboniferous would have been a terrifying sight to behold.

    • @mikeoxmall69420
      @mikeoxmall69420 4 месяца назад +33

      Ah yes, the Carboniferous
      When everywhere was Australia

    • @GalvyTheTom
      @GalvyTheTom 4 месяца назад +23

      @@mikeoxmall69420If Australia was predominantly rainforest instead of desert

    • @ratre7349
      @ratre7349 4 месяца назад +12

      But also terrifyingly beautifull.

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад

      You can ask German and Japanese survivors of World War II, they can give you an idea of what it would have been like. Specifically, people who lived in Dresden and Tokyo.

  • @AceofHearth
    @AceofHearth 4 месяца назад +449

    I don't know why but watching this video makes me long to see the days before I ever existed. Not to experience or go through it, but just to observe it and just wonder and wander more.

    • @davidgantenbein9362
      @davidgantenbein9362 4 месяца назад +32

      I always wonder when we will go and just do super realistic simulations of all these time periods … to entertain, educate and also study possibilities. Maybe one day we can take a simulated walk through those times.

    • @LuisSierra42
      @LuisSierra42 4 месяца назад +19

      This just proves that there are far more things that we would never know or understand than the things we do

    • @Dean_stoonts
      @Dean_stoonts 4 месяца назад

      That’s stupid

    • @thelionoob
      @thelionoob 4 месяца назад +16

      that has been one of my deepest desires since I was a child. Be able to go to any period in time before human history as an observer, to gaze upon what we have never been able to.

    • @sp5072
      @sp5072 4 месяца назад +2

      Must’ve missed the part about the fire tornadoes

  • @DeuxisWasTaken
    @DeuxisWasTaken 4 месяца назад +11

    This is a great point. Fire needs reactive oxidiser and reactive fuel. (Pedantic nitpick: despite the name oxygen is not the only nor the most powerful oxidiser.) The problem is that reactive things, well, react and so they are never naturally available in large not yet reacted quantities. Life is the exception in that it reverses that process, it uses energy to turn less reactive compounds into more reactive ones (endothermic chemical reactions) so that it can use them as building blocks or react them back together to get the stored energy back.
    Photosynthesis is a pump that takes energy from the Sun's light to perform these reactions, transforming that light energy into usable chemical energy. When aerobic life burns sugar with oxygen to use that energy, the term "burns" is pretty literal. As a side effect, the surplus oxygen and unburnt fuel can result in plain old fire.
    Although, it might be possible for fire to exist without life. There are endothermic reactions that can occur due to heat without any organic help, so there might be planets where extreme solar radiation or internal heat affect naturally occurring compounds and result in endothermic reactions that produce oxidiser+fuel, which then burn back together, completing a cycle.

    • @TheWemmick
      @TheWemmick 4 месяца назад +2

      Fantastic comment. I was hoping someone with chemistry knowledge would step in.
      "it might be possible for fire to exist without life"
      Yeah, I was wondering. My thinking was that a planet with an eccentric orbit might provide suitable conditions. If you had an endothermic reaction storing up energy during the hot period of the orbit, it could burn off when the planet travels farther from its star.

  • @toodlesX14
    @toodlesX14 4 месяца назад +166

    It may not be very scientific, but I've always liked thinking of fire as an abstract form of life. So it's super interesting to learn that fire wasn't always around, and needed a specific set of circumstances to "evolve" so to speak. Really neat episode, I learned a lot!

    • @ambergris5705
      @ambergris5705 4 месяца назад +2

      I love this idea too. Someone should write something about that!

    • @Nartinan
      @Nartinan 4 месяца назад +22

      Yes, I think so too. Fire is at least in the same category as life, both are in a sense a reaction zone. Fuel goes in, waste comes out, the system sustains itself and seeks more fuel until it "dies"

    • @cardboardboification
      @cardboardboification 4 месяца назад

      fire is simple electromagnetic at the atomic structure , absolutely no electromagnetic physics on earth create cells , much less life

    • @HallucigeniaIV
      @HallucigeniaIV 4 месяца назад +18

      I have a vague memory of the series of Avatar (the OG one with the element-benders) Discussing fire as an "alive" element, or even the element of life, as it is the only element that grows and needs care to exist. it always stuck with me and I think fire is a beautiful counterpart to our usual understanding of life!

    • @TheSaneHatter
      @TheSaneHatter 4 месяца назад +1

      Robert de Niro, as a fire-department investigator, has a monologue to that effect in the movie, "Backdraft."

  • @Zimisce85
    @Zimisce85 4 месяца назад +493

    I would love to see an episode about lichens: their evolution, when the symbiont relation may have appeared, if they have made genetic studies and if they have learned something from them. I always had the idea that lichens have much to say about the emergence of life on land.

    • @LeoDomitrix
      @LeoDomitrix 4 месяца назад +14

      Just seconding (or fiftieth-ing) the lichens. They're fascinating.

    • @thelionoob
      @thelionoob 4 месяца назад +8

      agreed

    • @one_field
      @one_field 4 месяца назад +8

      Upvote! This would be a great episode.

    • @jwarfield1623
      @jwarfield1623 4 месяца назад +8

      I'm here for that too. I'd love that

    • @Pk_Nangz
      @Pk_Nangz 4 месяца назад +9

      I’m in school for natural resources and they’re one of my favourite things to learn about. They are pretty much architects of nature as they break down rock from barren stony landscapes to produce soil which leads to forests, this process is known as ecological succession and it’s very interesting.

  • @SilverScarletSpider
    @SilverScarletSpider 4 месяца назад +54

    2:29 i like it when the hosts enjoy the scripts that they write. gives everyone a bit more voice. Wood is rarer in this universe than Diamond, because only Earth has wood.

  • @tylerwheeling3060
    @tylerwheeling3060 4 месяца назад +5

    This is lowkey an anthropologist answer to religious fire and early religions too. Fire made humanity and culture as it is today from the very start. Its importance is woven into most mythologies, for better and for worse.

  • @LXAsx457
    @LXAsx457 3 месяца назад +3

    I’ve watched a lot of these PBS Eons videos, and this has got to be one of the most interesting ones yet. Well done 👏 👏 👏

  • @goatsplitter
    @goatsplitter 4 месяца назад +285

    This makes me wonder what other kind of things are possible on other planets. If fire is unique to our earth like conditions, what about other things? The universe is constantly amazing.

    • @oriontigley5089
      @oriontigley5089 4 месяца назад +67

      Oil and coal is also probably fairly unique to Earth, since they largely formed from our specific mass extinction events.
      It's very possible that, if intelligent life does exist out there, their Industrial Revolution would look very different or may not happen at all

    • @krishadyn5211
      @krishadyn5211 4 месяца назад +30

      The most amazing basic object that could be grasped might be ice fragments from high pressure planets. As ice is compressed, it becomes incredibly hard, like stone. Like cold crystal. It can be set into lava and not melt. But if you took these cold diamonds out of their high pressure atmosphere, they'd melt (I think).

    • @goatsplitter
      @goatsplitter 4 месяца назад +22

      @@oriontigley5089 yeah you're so right! I read somewhere that as we keep depleting our fossil fuel reserves, we're making it so a hypothetical intelligent life down the line, or future humans, would never be able to industrialize. Wild!!

    • @Rebar77_real
      @Rebar77_real 4 месяца назад +5

      Like how there are so many different thermite reactions here, then there's Uranium!

    • @jaredf6205
      @jaredf6205 4 месяца назад +8

      For fire, you need a chemical to accept electrons and a chemical to give electrons. Oxygen, chlorine and fluorine give electrons really well and you can have fires involving those, I don’t think most other elements are as reactive in that way. There are loads of chemicals that can give electrons to them, fuels. But there’s not really anything weird and new out there as far as flashy reactions like that like you are thinking. Not going to come across some new phenomena.

  • @davidboyle1902
    @davidboyle1902 4 месяца назад +192

    This is one of your best presentations. Never actually thought about fire as discussed here. Very informative. Thx.

  • @geirtwo
    @geirtwo 4 месяца назад +9

    "Fire can't exist without life" 🤯 Wow, that is something to think about. I have had thoughts about fire as a form of life recently, but I have never though fire is dependent on life. It is like we could place fire somewhere in the phylogenetic tree!
    Heraclitus is the best!

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад +2

      Fire isn't dependent on life.

    • @ragnkja
      @ragnkja 3 месяца назад +2

      Without life, the fuel and oxidiser would just react with each other and get used up. The thing that’s unique about Earth is that they get replenished, and that requires life.

    • @cowboybeebop3451
      @cowboybeebop3451 Месяц назад

      The sun is a nuclear fire, it's not really an explosion as it is constant so it's a fire ​@@ragnkja

    • @ragnkja
      @ragnkja Месяц назад

      @@cowboybeebop3451
      But it’s not a fire, it’s a nuclear chain reaction.

    • @cowboybeebop3451
      @cowboybeebop3451 Месяц назад

      @@ragnkja but isn't a fire just a sustained reaction though?
      It's just the combustion of something like wood but it's still functions in the same way just not using oxygen.
      I mean I could be wrong but when I think of the sun I think fire and light

  • @jaimequinones1109
    @jaimequinones1109 4 месяца назад +6

    This is one of y'all's best videos of all time imo. Wow

  • @aplaceinthestars3207
    @aplaceinthestars3207 4 месяца назад +98

    Gosh, I feel like my mental concept of fire is stuck in the medieval era! The fact that both decomposing organisms AND fire didn't exist since the dawn of life and came about far later just blows my mind!

  • @borovice1731
    @borovice1731 4 месяца назад +70

    Wow. This episode explained one of the longest interconnected chain of events ever.

  • @TMtheScratcher
    @TMtheScratcher 4 месяца назад +2

    Grasslands are so underrated. Now I see them in a completely different light, thanks!

  • @MilonMing
    @MilonMing 3 месяца назад +1

    I love this. Not only is it interesting for children to learn about, it appealed to me and I'm 70!! Puts a whole new spin on fire; something we take for granted on our planet.

  • @fugithegreat
    @fugithegreat 4 месяца назад +349

    Wow, I'd never considered the fact that fire wouldn't exist without something carbon-based to burn. Thanks for expanding my horizons and helping me to reframe my understanding!

    • @luel23
      @luel23 4 месяца назад +50

      There are some inorganic substances that can burn, too. Sulfur for example would yield you a little blue fire when ignited. Keeping in mind that accumulations of sulfur usually build up at vulcanic areas, this could easily happen.
      It's more the oxygen in the atmosphere that enables the formation of fires, since you have to have an oxidizing agent to burn stuff ^^

    • @ecurewitz
      @ecurewitz 4 месяца назад +12

      And an oxygen rich atmosphere rich

    • @sntslilhlpr6601
      @sntslilhlpr6601 4 месяца назад +7

      Same here. Turns out rocks don't burn lol.

    • @cardboardboification
      @cardboardboification 4 месяца назад +3

      fire has nothing to do with carbon, it's electromagnetic releasing electromagnetic energy in the spectrum of light and inferred , just consider it a very slow atomic bomb

    • @michaelblankenau6598
      @michaelblankenau6598 4 месяца назад +4

      I don't think rocket fuel is carbon based , but it definitely creates a powerful fire .

  • @thomasfalkenberg8549
    @thomasfalkenberg8549 4 месяца назад +227

    Considering Fire's role in human societies, this might also be a small step towards the Fermi Paradox

    • @Ethan-cz8xq
      @Ethan-cz8xq 4 месяца назад +47

      Possibly. So for intelligent life to have access to fire, they'd need to both evolve on land and have oxygen be produced by a large amount of autotrophs

    • @geralferald
      @geralferald 4 месяца назад +13

      @@Ethan-cz8xqfire isn’t necessary to technologically debelop

    • @IceSpoon
      @IceSpoon 4 месяца назад +97

      @@geralferald You can't have a Kardashev-2 civilisation without barbecues.

    • @oriontigley5089
      @oriontigley5089 4 месяца назад +30

      ​@@geralferaldIt's not strictly neccessary, no, but it is extremely helpful.

    • @salemsaberhagan
      @salemsaberhagan 4 месяца назад +49

      ​@@geralferaldit's necessary to externalise a part of the digestive process as we understand it, which both enables acquisition of biological energy through food & frees it up for complex & expensive mental processes which are necessary for technological development. No cooking means no extra energy for thinking up fancy things to do with lasers. Brains are expensive electrical devices.

  • @aidanwewilin
    @aidanwewilin 4 месяца назад +2

    I didn’t expect this video to heighten my appreciation for fire and grass to this height.

  • @karlmark9967
    @karlmark9967 4 месяца назад +5

    I've always wondered how a planet with so much oxygen back then never got it self set on fire. It really was on fire. This topic is Lit.

  • @raphlvlogs271
    @raphlvlogs271 4 месяца назад +22

    plants that are fire resistant are usually also more tolerant to poor nutrient deficient soils as well

  • @kathleencross-cj1xd
    @kathleencross-cj1xd 4 месяца назад +110

    Of course! Rocks can't burn. Only things that have lived can burn. It makes so much sense. Why didn't I think of that. I love your vids. I love learning this stuff. Thanks.

    • @leewagner4474
      @leewagner4474 4 месяца назад +17

      Magnesium burns.

    • @maxgosselin62
      @maxgosselin62 4 месяца назад +32

      ​@@leewagner4474yeah, so do a lot of compounds that can exist without living organisms (even if they are much more common in their presence). I get the feeling that fire isn't necessarily ABSENT in the rest of the universe, just A LOT less common

    • @austin4855
      @austin4855 4 месяца назад +14

      @@leewagner4474 True, but magnesium is pretty rare in a pure metallic form on earth or anywhere else that we know of. And it oxidizes and that layer actually protects it from further oxygen exposure. If you had oxygen, metallic magnesium, and some kind of ignition source like a current, it could happen, but it's probably very rare.

    • @mkhanman12345
      @mkhanman12345 4 месяца назад +1

      I am going to learn now

    • @TG_Flatline
      @TG_Flatline 4 месяца назад +1

      What about coal? (Genuinely asking)

  • @harrisonmoore3841
    @harrisonmoore3841 4 месяца назад +5

    This makes me wonder about life out there in space. Like, if their species couldn't invent fire, what could they do instead?

  • @KingsleyIII
    @KingsleyIII 4 месяца назад +7

    This episode is straight fire.

  • @AifDaimon
    @AifDaimon 4 месяца назад +44

    New criteria in the search for earth-like exoplanets: signs of fire.. Edit - I correctly guessed Dimetrodon

  • @RabidJohn
    @RabidJohn 4 месяца назад +87

    Fire simply needs fuel and oxygen, so as soon as there was a sufficient concentration in the atmosphere, it was a thing.
    I was a coal miner. Seams commonly have very thin 'soot' bands (actually crushed charcoal) in them where the forests burnt around 350M years ago.
    Unsurprising that it goes back much further.

    • @jamesgeorge4874
      @jamesgeorge4874 4 месяца назад +2

      You forgot heat.

    • @RabidJohn
      @RabidJohn 4 месяца назад +6

      @@jamesgeorge4874 No, I didn't.
      Fire needs an ignition source such as lightning.
      It doesn't need heat: it produces heat.
      Also, as a coal miner I know spontaneous combustion is a real and dangerous thing.
      Coal will oxidise without burning, but the reaction still produces heat.
      Limited airflow may not be sufficient to dissipate the heat and then you get the carbon dioxide reduction reaction that produces carbon monoxide.
      All with no flame...

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад

      Fire needs fuel and an oxidizer. Oxygen isn't the only oxidizer.

  • @blazefireecology
    @blazefireecology 4 месяца назад +2

    may be biased, but this is one of the best eons videos yet! thanks for sharing the important and ancient relationship of life on earth with fire!

  • @Osterbaum
    @Osterbaum 4 месяца назад +5

    An overview of the evolution of plants would be a useful episode.

    • @WAMTAT
      @WAMTAT 4 месяца назад +2

      That would need to be several episodes. Plants are ... complex

  • @IRosamelia
    @IRosamelia 4 месяца назад +11

    I can't believe I'm learning this in my mid-forties. This should be middle school basic science knowledge 🤔

  • @geekyprojects1353
    @geekyprojects1353 4 месяца назад +28

    Nowadays iron contained in vehicles still absorbs oxygen. We call the product of this process "a beater car".

    • @DangerB0ne
      @DangerB0ne 4 месяца назад +3

      Perhaps in time this process can be preserved as a hooptie-ite.

    • @KangwithoutaKangdom
      @KangwithoutaKangdom 4 месяца назад

      ​@@DangerB0ne😂😂😂

    • @aircraftcarrierwo-class
      @aircraftcarrierwo-class 4 месяца назад +3

      @@DangerB0ne As you can see this rock layer contains a high concentration of jalopicite...

    • @TragoudistrosMPH
      @TragoudistrosMPH 4 месяца назад +1

      Such pure geekery! 🥲

    • @pinrod1
      @pinrod1 2 месяца назад

      Weight reduction bro

  • @prapanthebachelorette6803
    @prapanthebachelorette6803 4 месяца назад +1

    I’ve been wondering my whole life why areas looking so dry and dead like this managed to sustain so many lives! Thanks Eons 😊🎉

  • @troymcguffey8801
    @troymcguffey8801 4 месяца назад +4

    Thank you very much for this video. I often wondered on other planets if there were other natural processes that happened that couldn't happen here. Maybe like fog that was made out of acid or different types of natural phenomenon that we simply just couldn't imagine and I don't mean like raining glass or anything like that

  • @grokeffer6226
    @grokeffer6226 4 месяца назад +30

    I'd not really thought about this before. This is truly amazing. 🔥

  • @emidowdarrow
    @emidowdarrow 4 месяца назад +9

    Pretty cool. Makes sense why more ancient traditions view fire as life-giving.

  • @irrelevant2235
    @irrelevant2235 4 месяца назад +5

    Fire is a chemical reaction and life is a chemical reaction.

  • @monticore1626
    @monticore1626 2 месяца назад

    In Australia the eucalyptus trees have oil in their leaves, not only is it toxic but it also makes them highly flammable. Many species have stringy bark which hangs down from the branches and is essentially ideal kindling. The trees go to all this effort to be flammable as a reproductive strategy as many species have seed pods that are highly resistant to fire but also are activated by fire

  • @SuspiciousOwlbear
    @SuspiciousOwlbear 4 месяца назад +27

    Well darn, I thought we only had fire because of Prometheus.

    • @GalvyTheTom
      @GalvyTheTom 4 месяца назад +1

      What a plagiarizer

    • @davidgantenbein9362
      @davidgantenbein9362 4 месяца назад +6

      Technically Prometheus from mythology only gave fire to humans, he didn’t invent or create it. In fact, he stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans.

  • @maisiesummers42
    @maisiesummers42 4 месяца назад +22

    The opening bit about the sun being mostly hydrogen reminded me of this quote:
    "Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon and managed to look small, cold and slightly damp.” -Douglas Adams, Life, The Universe and Everything.

  • @Kat-mh1ol
    @Kat-mh1ol 4 месяца назад +3

    Thanks for such a great video. Love the idea that fire replenishes and nourishes life, especially at this cold time of year. It’s so interesting what fire does in our ecosystems.

  • @DaydreamerWonderland
    @DaydreamerWonderland 4 месяца назад +10

    This episode SLAPPED! I learned so much in 12mins it’s an absolute masterpiece, congrats to the writing!

  • @anthonyfrench3169
    @anthonyfrench3169 4 месяца назад +12

    Even today we use fire to reseed the biosphere. Some examples that are at home for me is at Oak Openings in Toledo OH. It's an Oak Savanah and also where I currently live in Yamaguchi Japan. Akiyoshidai, a Karst plateau, both places use fire as a means to promote healthy growth.

  • @godofthisshit
    @godofthisshit 4 месяца назад +11

    I think these are the type of things we should think of when answering questions like “could the non avian dinosaurs survive today” or any long ago population. Grasslands wasn’t even common 65 million years ago.

  • @gillosborne9516
    @gillosborne9516 4 месяца назад +1

    Wow. What an episode. I’m mid sixties. Why did I not know this?

  • @LEDewey_MD
    @LEDewey_MD 3 месяца назад +5

    Great episode! The story of how our atmosphere became partly oxygen is a fascinating story, requiring research from many fields, including geology, meteorology, paleontology, and biology. An absolutely great book that covers all of these is "Oxygen: the Molecule that Made the World", by Dr. Nick Lane, (professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London, director of UCL's Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution ....in fact, I highly recommend ALL of his books.) It is an incredibly thorough and engaging read and remarkably still up to date, even though it was published in 2002. :)

  • @LukeBunyip
    @LukeBunyip 4 месяца назад +21

    Given I live on a continent synonymous with fire, the lack of mention of the Eucalyptus family of flowering plants is bemusing.

    • @floopyboo
      @floopyboo 4 месяца назад +1

      This

    • @julesmasseffectmusic
      @julesmasseffectmusic 4 месяца назад +1

      Well our seasons are under water, on fire ,drought and magpie mating season.

  • @mattfirestone1
    @mattfirestone1 4 месяца назад +21

    What about chlorate reactions like in an oxygen candle? Isn't it possible to have combustion with the absence of Oxygen? Other types of combustion exist as well, like fluorine. Also magnesium/teflon/biton compositions burn without oxygen. Other halogens, such as bromine and iodine, can also act as oxidizing agents.

    • @DeRien8
      @DeRien8 4 месяца назад +1

      Or when the alkali metals oxidize vigorously in water or air. Or when hydrogen and oxygen explode to make water? I'm not sure if there would be enough of those reactive species hanging around separately on early Earth for any significant "fires" though.

    • @nottelling7438
      @nottelling7438 4 месяца назад +2

      The reactions discussed in the video (oxygen + organic fuel) are definitely fire, but I neither natural language evolution nor, I suspect, the wide array of possible chemical reactions particularly lend themselves to drawing a sharp line to distinguish fire from not fire without any ambiguous or counterintuitive results.

    • @mattfirestone1
      @mattfirestone1 4 месяца назад +2

      @@DeRien8 The title of the video is "why only earth has fire". My point is that there are many combustible compositions and an unfathomable number of planets so it is incredibly likely that a) there is fire on other planets and b) they aren't necessarily burning oxygen.

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад +2

      It is absolutely possible. This video is rather misleading.
      Hydrocarbons can exist without life.
      Oxygen isn't the only oxidizer (and not even the most powerful one).
      From there all you need is energy to begin the reaction.

    • @mattfirestone1
      @mattfirestone1 3 месяца назад

      That's also my understanding. Fire most likely exists in lots of places. @@TheRogueX

  • @noahdove4969
    @noahdove4969 4 месяца назад

    Oh my! Kelly, everytime you manage how to amaze me. Thank you all so much guys at EONS!

  • @SavannahBurris
    @SavannahBurris 3 месяца назад +2

    Pretty neat! I hadn’t ever really thought about this even though in hindsight, it seems very logical and obvious. Reminds me a lot of Avatar: The Last Airbender and how Firebending is actually the element of life - not destruction. Without controlled burnings of grasslands and the death of old, decaying plants, new life would never have the chance to flourish.

  • @owensanfordstuff
    @owensanfordstuff 4 месяца назад +11

    Damn, just opened RUclips and new video

    • @sarathrathnayake1574
      @sarathrathnayake1574 4 месяца назад

      same for me too

    • @paraceratherium255
      @paraceratherium255 4 месяца назад

      It’s 3:00 am tho

    • @owensanfordstuff
      @owensanfordstuff 4 месяца назад

      @@paraceratherium255 different time zones

    • @paraceratherium255
      @paraceratherium255 4 месяца назад +1

      @@owensanfordstuff that’s not what I was saying. I am just sleep deprived and should be asleep.

    • @owensanfordstuff
      @owensanfordstuff 4 месяца назад

      @@paraceratherium255 yeah I didn't get that from your first comment 😂

  • @Fantasygod930
    @Fantasygod930 4 месяца назад +51

    I kind of knew fire had a archeological record But it was only up to humans discovering and using fire Maybe a bit of the dinosaur's extinction But damn I did not know if first appeared when life appeared or when plants appeared That's insane This channel always has many surprises instored

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад

      Fire has existed for way longer than Earth has. This video is extremely misleading.

  • @wraithwrecker_
    @wraithwrecker_ 4 месяца назад +1

    What simple and bizarre yet endlessly fascinating fact. This blows my mind. Great video.

  • @bretfisher7286
    @bretfisher7286 19 дней назад +1

    This is quite fascinating. I'm not exactly a scientist (which is a big reason I'm here-- to learn), but I'd actually never thought of this.

  • @ApprendreSansNecessite
    @ApprendreSansNecessite 4 месяца назад +5

    This intro is missing Lindsey Nikole's "THAT WE KNOW OF" XD

    • @LolUGotBusted
      @LolUGotBusted 4 месяца назад

      It is missing Lindsey Nikoles "that we know of" THAT WE KNOW OF*

  • @morenauer
    @morenauer 4 месяца назад +4

    Earth not only has fire, but also wind. Mainly in September ♬

  • @8SnowBalls8
    @8SnowBalls8 4 месяца назад +8

    "Nucular" --- I died ☠

  • @MsZeeZed
    @MsZeeZed 4 месяца назад +4

    Fire needs an Oxidiser, it doesn’t have to be dioxygen, its just the easiest component and makes fire so common, here on Earth. Fire can exist without life, it would just be much rarer in the absence of life, not completely absent.

    • @sydhenderson6753
      @sydhenderson6753 4 месяца назад +1

      Since volcanoes emit sulfur, that may have fueled Earth's first fires, although not wildfires.

    • @ragnkja
      @ragnkja 3 месяца назад

      The thing that life provides is the ability to reverse energy-releasing chemical reactions. So without life, burned-up things stay burned-up forever.

  • @badmonkey244
    @badmonkey244 4 месяца назад +5

    You did it again: the title is enough to make me drop everything I'm doing cause now I HAVE to know 😅

  • @davidcooke8005
    @davidcooke8005 4 месяца назад

    0:40 Nukular Fusion is my favorite kind of music.

  • @Simbabbad
    @Simbabbad 2 месяца назад +1

    This was an original and interesting angle! Great job.

  • @jjptech
    @jjptech 4 месяца назад +8

    Can you continue this video by talking about trees that only spread seed when submited to fire?

  • @chih_le
    @chih_le 4 месяца назад +26

    I got the trivia question right :) I love the new idea of trivia questions but can I suggest for the answers to only be revealed in the next video so that we can create discussions in the comments section without having to worry that people think we skip to the end to get the answer? The more educated guesses may even let us learn about alternate answers to the trivia question!

    • @TragoudistrosMPH
      @TragoudistrosMPH 4 месяца назад +3

      🤔 I'm not sure alternate answers are ideal given the state of misinformation on the Internet 😕
      I love the idea of discussion though!
      (It could be challenging finding the answers in separate episodes when watching out of order, but YT has dates, so not impossible.)
      They could pin a discussion comment up top!

    • @phoebemurtagh3059
      @phoebemurtagh3059 4 месяца назад +1

      The classic "I'm not a dinosaur, but I play one in TV, children's toy sets, and the public consciousness" animal. 😁

  • @TheReaverOfDarkness
    @TheReaverOfDarkness 4 месяца назад +2

    Titan might have fire, albeit far more rarely than Earth. Hypothetically if a volcano pushed up a strongly oxidizing mineral at a high enough temperature for ignition, it could catch fire. But it is also possible that even a fresh volcanic flow bed on Titan is not warm enough to enable fire to propagate. It would really depend on the temperature of the outflowing material--and the material composition would also matter as solid or gas phase material would not create a warm zone as well as liquid material would.

    • @TheRogueX
      @TheRogueX 4 месяца назад +1

      Fire could absolutely exist, it just might not last very long. In certain environments where temperatures could be better stabilized (like underground cave structures) there may be eternal methane fires burning in the presence of something like fluorine, like some of our underground mine fires and stuff that exist on Earth.

  • @erictaylor5462
    @erictaylor5462 3 месяца назад +1

    You can have fire on planets or moons if they have a flammable atmosphere such as methane (Titan) or hydrogen.
    On Earth we put a bunch of stuff (fuel) in one place and the oxidizer comes from the air.
    In a place like Titan you put a bunch of oxidizer in one place and the fuel comes from the air.

  • @markmuller7962
    @markmuller7962 4 месяца назад +3

    I had no idea some plants had such a relationship with fire. Amazing

  • @ntamsma
    @ntamsma 4 месяца назад +5

    Never would have realized this. Love the show!

  • @lauroralei
    @lauroralei 4 месяца назад +2

    I often think of fire poetically as sunlight, trapped within plants, to be re-released into the Universe again anywhere from months to millions of years later

  • @chrislautoronto
    @chrislautoronto 4 месяца назад +1

    The “low key” title significantly masked the importance of this episode to understanding how life on earth had a chance in the first place.

  • @takenname8053
    @takenname8053 4 месяца назад +9

    Never realized this, until you pointed out how lightning and burning plasma are completely different things.

  • @planetJane
    @planetJane 4 месяца назад +3

    This video was great and very educational as usual, however, I think the wildest thing I learned here is that PBS Eons is apparently filmed in Montana.

  • @gurusage
    @gurusage 3 месяца назад +1

    Excellent video. The only thing I would have said differently is "Earth is the only planet in our solar system that has fire." We don't know if any of the exoplanets (in other star systems) throughout the universe have fire.

  • @Satyrday
    @Satyrday 4 месяца назад

    i understand now why fire is not only synonymous with death but also rebirth. poetic in a way.

  • @brambleheart
    @brambleheart 4 месяца назад +6

    Dimetrodon is the trivia answer. Seeing them in Dominion makes me wanna a Palaeozoic Park.
    The symbiotic relationship between fire and life is really interesting. No wonder a fireplace is so calming and fascinating.

  • @j__r0d
    @j__r0d 4 месяца назад +5

    man, this episode is 🔥 (jokes aside...I now understand why it's called the CARBONiferous period!)

  • @ItsCaramelToffee
    @ItsCaramelToffee 4 месяца назад

    Loving the new trivia ending to the videos!

  • @steamdbody99
    @steamdbody99 4 месяца назад +1

    in love with letting my mind blow with your videos , thank you pbs eons

  • @Kemot300
    @Kemot300 4 месяца назад +3

    This gives the song "Fire in the sky" (American Space Age Anthem) a whole new meaning

  • @AardBewoner
    @AardBewoner 4 месяца назад +14

    This was so interesting, made me think of fire in a different way. I especially loved the analysis of the grassland biome, this is a useful vid for the NoLawns community. This made me wonder about the evolution of other biomes and plant communities. Cloud forests? Alpine grasslands? Temperate rainforests? Steppe?

  • @punditgi
    @punditgi Месяц назад +1

    Kallie is beautiful and irresistible. And she has a charming way of presenting science. Brava, signora! ❤🎉😊

  • @juvicgaviola1287
    @juvicgaviola1287 3 месяца назад

    Really puts the term "Fire power" to a different level

  • @Muggashyte
    @Muggashyte 4 месяца назад +3

    This might be the only channel with all positive comments. I had comments, but all the others are so much better… fantastic!

  • @macgonzo
    @macgonzo 4 месяца назад +4

    Episode idea: the potential for complex life on Europa. Complex life seems to require oxygen to develop, but I'd imagine that photosynthesis would not be very efficient on Europa... Would it be possible for complex life to emerge around undersea vents in the absence of photosynthesis? With the surface of Europa being almost entirely sealed by a vast column of ice, how would this likely impact the development of complex life? Eyes, I'd suppose, would likely never evolve, so what would be the likely outcomes from complex life having never developed eyes? Wishing you all the very best over the festive season ❤

    • @aircraftcarrierwo-class
      @aircraftcarrierwo-class 4 месяца назад +2

      That's more of a PBS Space topic and-- PBS Space already did a video about life on Europa! Give it a look.

    • @macgonzo
      @macgonzo 4 месяца назад +1

      @@aircraftcarrierwo-class I've seen that episode, but it was a long time ago now, will give it a rewatch 👍

  • @FelipeKana1
    @FelipeKana1 4 месяца назад +3

    Came for the lesson on fire, but stood for the lesson on plants

  • @earthjustice01
    @earthjustice01 4 месяца назад +1

    And without water there would be no plate tectonics. Water from the oceans gets pulled down during subduction, mixes with oceanic crust, and this subducted rock turns to liquid magma after millions of years spent being pulled down into the mantle. The magma rises up through fissures to the surface where it erupts as volcanoes.

  • @tOGGLEwAFFLES
    @tOGGLEwAFFLES 4 месяца назад +5

    So is it not actually fire if a different oxidizer causes something to combust?

    • @KangwithoutaKangdom
      @KangwithoutaKangdom 4 месяца назад

      Excellent question

    • @sydhenderson6753
      @sydhenderson6753 4 месяца назад

      @@KangwithoutaKangdom Still fire.

    • @Goro_Maj1ma
      @Goro_Maj1ma 4 месяца назад +1

      ​@@sydhenderson6753Nope! At least not by this videos logic.