Article: COOKERY: THE REAL ORIGIN OF SPECIES; Splitting the atom? Penicillin? No, a new book says the greatest discovery in history was the moment an ape dropped some raw meat into the fire.(News)

Byline: by William Leith

WHAT would you imagine to be the greatest single discovery in human history -- the one that enabled mankind to take not just a giant stride forwards but an epic leap? The combustion engine, perhaps? The telephone? The computer microchip? No. According to a compelling new book, the single most important scientific discovery took place two million years ago in the plains of modern day Africa, when an ape dropped a piece of meat into a fire. Thus cooking was born, and human history began.

Now, this may seem slightly farfetched.

How could this primordial Gordon Ramsay be greater than, say, Einstein, Alexander Bell, Louis ...

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