Back to Show
Eons
Why Only Earth Has Fire
Season 6
Episode 10
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.
Support Provided By
11:45
What did ancient people once know about these bizarre megafauna that we’ve since forgotten?
7:44
5,700 years ago, woolly mammoths crossed a remote tundra island off Alaska.
9:48
Why did vertebrates conquer both the land and the air before the depths of the sea?
8:27
Long-extinct dinosaurs may still haunt us—possibly driving us to age faster than any vertebrate.
9:34
Only twice in Earth's history have supermountains risen, and both times reshaped life forever.
10:05
500+ pterosaur fossils found at Solnhofen may be hiding a dark secret distorting our view of them.
11:08
Why are our teeth so sensitive? The answer originates in the armored skin of ancient fish.
10:45
For flowering plants to take over, they first helped burn the old world—and then put the fires out.
11:37
Ancient weeds mimicked crops, tricking farmers into domesticating friends—and enemies—by mistake.
12:14
Brains and brawn aren’t opposites—they’ve been linked far longer than we might think.