Deep Time Adventures:

"New Scientist" article on the Complex Origins of Animal Life on Earth and why it took so long. Also know as a solution to "Darwin's Dilemma" of the apparent sudden origin of life on Earth. Conditions for life in the beginning were so harsh that only small soft bodied life could survive and it took awhile for those cells to develop the methods to work together and communicate. Having done that they needed some Ice Ages and the trick of eating bacteria before they learned to thrive.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327161.200-dawn-of-the-animals-solving-darwins-dilemma.html?full=true

Vietnam a battlfield scorched more than 1,500 years ago

A Scientific American piece on how archeologists have found traces of fire used in warfare from 1,500 years ago in Vietnam.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vietnam-burning-warfare