The word science comes from the Latin “Scientia”, meaning knowledge.According to Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of science is “knowledgeattained through study or practice”. Pure science is also called basic science.It is about collecting new knowledges, creating hypothesis and then testing thehypothesis by objective methods (i.e. observation and experimentation) todecide if it is a truth or falseness. By pure science, we develop scientifictheories. Applying the theories to the real life to solve practical problemseventually makes the pure science meaningful. And this field is called appliedscience. (1) (2)

In the prehistoric era, the applied science is probably the one andonly type of science when considering about the possibility and necessity. Thatis the time about one to two million years ago and it is the time period whenhuman being was trying to survive and nothing else. They needed to work on the basiclife skills. So, the prehistoric scientific innovations are all about appliedscience. I would like to give the example of controlled use of fire – one of themost important inventions during the Early Stone Age.

Early hominids experienced natural fires caused by lightning and wasterrified by its destructive power. Yet, mankind has the cognitive ability.They saw the brightness and felt the warmth of the fires. They noticed that thewild animals got scared away by fires and probably tried the tasty “barbequed”meat. Two million years ago, the early humans did not know how to make fire.They can only get fire by waiting for something burning from a natural cause. Firewas first used in stone hearths about 1.5 million years ago. (3) And thecontrolled/habitual/systematic use of fire can be traced back to 400,000 yearsago. (4) If the opportunistic use of natural fires is a prehistoric discovery,then the controlled use of fire or fire-making is for sure a technologicalinnovation.

According to the archaeological evidences, the Stone Age tribes indifferent continents have developed their own methods of making fire. Frictionwas the first and most recorded method to make fire. A fire drill consisting ofa stick of hard wood with one end pointed and a slab of softer wood with a holein it was used. First, put the pointed end of the hard wood into the hole ofthe softer wood and then rapidly twirl it. At the very beginning, it was byrubbing between the palms. Later on, other methods were invented. For example,they used a bow string looped round the pulled back and forth. By using thesemethods, the softer wood begins to smoulder. Shreds of dry tinder placed in thesmouldering cavity, can be carefully blown into a flame. The finding inneolithic tombs indicated another technique involving flint and pyrite. Thenaturally occurring mineral pyrite or iron pyrite has a special quality thatis, it makes a spark if struck with a flint. If the spark is aimed into drytinder, blowing can achieve a flame. (5) (6)

The invention of firemaking is of vital importance in theprehistoric era. It greatly improved the physical environment of early human. Itenabled a better survival and at the same time it made a start for the sociallife of the ancient people. The camp fire gathered people together and thecommunication turned out to be a routine. The spark of the fire also lighted upthe thought of human being and made the development of pure science possible.

Works Cited

(1) Suplee, Curt. “Introdution: The Dawn ofInquiry.” From Milstones of Science: TheHistory of Humankind’s Freatest Ideas. Washington, DC: National GeographicSociety, 2000. 7 -11

(2) Aumann, Robert J. “Pure Science andApplied Science.” Rambam Maimonides MedJ. 2011 Jan; 2(1): e0017

(3) http://www.ushistory.org/civ/2d.asp

(4) Twomey T. 2013. “The cognitiveImplication of Controlled Fire Use by Early |Humans.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23(01):113-128.

(5) Goudsblom, J. “Fire, Human Use, andConsequences.” International Encyclopediaof the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Nel J. Smelser and Paul B. Galtes,eds. London: Elsevier 2004

(6)Goren-史qiInbar, Naama, et al. “Evidenceof Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel.” Science 304(5671):725-727