The Little Book of Big History

WHERE DOES THE ENERGY COME FROM?

Memes
The biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term ‘meme’ for the cultural equivalent of a gene. A meme is any transmittable idea, behaviour, style or technology. Some memes – such as clay writing tablets – flourish for a while until superseded by something better. Others, such as the concept of God, have proved more persistent

next big leap came 1.8 billion years ago, when larger, more complex cells appeared. These so-called eukaryotic cells contain the DNA within a central structure, the nucleus. There are also a number of other specialist structures with particular functions. These are called organelles. The fact that some of them have their own

Fire is a good servant, but a bad master.’
English proverb (early 17th century)
The warmth from fires enabled humans to colonize colder parts of the world. Fire also gave birth to cooking. Perhaps the first cooked meal was produced when a chunk of raw meat fell into the fire. Scientists believe that it was Homo erectus who was the first to consume cooked food. This is based on the relatively small size of their molars, compared to those of other apes. This suggests that they may have spent less than two hours a day chewing their food, compared to chimpanzees, which spend a third of their day feeding. Not only could these early humans extract more calories from food if it was cooked, but cooking also enabled them to consume a range of new foods that would otherwise be either inedible or indigestible

Instincts in humans – shared with other animals – include the drive to eat, sleep, reproduce and nurture offspring

We share 98.7 per cent of our DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos, but these two species differ in their behaviour. Chimps are male-dominated, hunt in groups, are aggressively territorial, and may kill other chimps. Only high-ranking males get to mate. Chimps use a variety of tools, for example to crack nuts or to catch ants. Tool use has only been observed among bonobos in captivity.
Bonobo groups are dominated by females (who have strong bonds with each other), although there is much less sexual differentiation than in chimps. The territories of different bonobo groups overlap, and they have not been observed hunting in groups. Sex is frequent between males and females, and with members of the same sex. Sex is important for social bonding and conflict resolution, not just for reproduction. This has been described as ‘sex for peace’.
Claiming thabt behaviour is genetically determined is always going to prove controversial. But it is certainly possible to see some aspects of human behaviour reflected in that of the chimps, while other aspects are closer to that of the bonobos

Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1988)

‘The wonder is, not that the field of the stars is so vast, but that man has measured it.’
Anatole France, The Garden of Epicurus (1894)

the part of it we can observe is 93 billion light years in diameter

Within recorded history, the largest volcanic eruption was that of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815. It blasted so much ash into the Earth’s atmosphere that for many months much of the Sun’s light was blocked out, and 1816 became known as ‘the year without a summer’.