Humanity has always been proud of its cleverness, its knack for turning adversity into opportunity, and its ability to tinker with the universe’s spare parts. But if we were to take a good, honest inventory of our “toolbox,” we’d find that it’s surprisingly compact. There aren’t infinite tools in humanity’s kit; instead, we rely on a peculiar handful of items—each one ancient, quirky, and transformative in its own way.

Let’s take a tour through this toolbox, an eclectic mix of fire, empathy, bacteria, and other oddities that have made humans the dominant—and often baffling—species on this planet.