The Importance Of "Soft Fascination"
The Rest Is Science
Sep 27, 2026 21:00
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What is fire, and why does watching it hold our attention in a different way from scrolling on your phone?
Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens start with the science of a flame: why it glows, what its different colours reveal, and why fire is a series of chemical reactions rather than a single substance.
Then they travel back to a time before wildfires could burn on Earth, and ask how early humans learned to use and make it.
Could keeping a fire alive have helped our ancestors learn to plan and cooperate? And what happens when we replace the quiet pull of a hearth with the endless pull of a phone?
From candle flames to early human history and the psychology of attention, this is the story of fire, the space it occupies in our history and lives.
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Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley + Jack Meek
Animator: Sam Benson
Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell
Assistant Producer: Lucy Lipscombe
Producer: Simona Rata
Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
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