Prometheus Unbound: The Fitness of Nature for Large Trees

Editor's note: Dr. Denton is a Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture, whose work is featured in the new documetnary Privileged Species which premiered online this week. See it here. Denton holds an MD from Bristol University and a PhD in biochemistry from King's College in London.

One of the critical requirements for sustainable fires, sufficiently hot to smelt metal ores, is wood. Thin twigs, dried grasses will burn, but such materials are unsuitable for maki...