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Why Only Earth Has Fire

Season 6 Episode 10 | 10m 45s

Earth isn’t the only watery planet in the known universe, but it is the only fiery planet. The sun is mostly hydrogen undergoing nuclear fusion, not fire. And on other planets magma from volcanoes and lightning are also not fire. To get fire, 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.

Aired: 12/18/23
Extras
Only twice in Earth's history have supermountains risen, and both times reshaped life forever.
Was the T-Rex given the wrong name?
500+ pterosaur fossils found at Solnhofen may be hiding a dark secret distorting our view of them.
Why are our teeth so sensitive? The answer originates in the armored skin of ancient fish.
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
Understanding the Isthmus of Panama.
How we might borrow genes from that ancient past of Greenland to help us adapt to the future.
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.
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Only twice in Earth's history have supermountains risen, and both times reshaped life forever.
Was the T-Rex given the wrong name?
500+ pterosaur fossils found at Solnhofen may be hiding a dark secret distorting our view of them.
Why are our teeth so sensitive? The answer originates in the armored skin of ancient fish.
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.
Understanding the Isthmus of Panama.
How we might borrow genes from that ancient past of Greenland to help us adapt to the future.
Tiny mammals and a group of lizard-like reptiles shared a trait that helped them survive extinction.