As The Jungle Book’s King Louie knows all too well, the ability to control fire is what sets humans apart from apes, fueling ...

Repeated burn injuries over more than a million years may have shaped human genes for wound closure, inflammation, and ...

Humans have lived with fire for over a million years. Scientists now say burn injuries may have influenced human evolution and healing.

To identify possible burn-injury response genes, researchers examined the transcriptomes (the genes expressed) in both burnt and unburnt skin from humans and rats. Examining the gene sequences, they ...

“Burns are a uniquely human injury. No other species lives alongside high temperatures and the regular risk of burning in the way humans do,” study co-author Joshua Cuddihy of Imperial’s Department of ...

Learn how repeated burn injuries may have acted as a form of natural selection, influencing human genes linked to healing and immune response.

Something about a warm, flickering campfire draws in modern humans. Where did that uniquely human impulse come from? How did our ancestors learn to make fire? How long have they been making it?