According to materialistic science, any memory requires a material substrate, such as the neuronal network in the brain or the DNA molecules of the genes. ↗
Among the notable things about fire is that it also requires oxygen to burn - exactly like its enemy, life. Thereby are life and flames so often compared. ↗
Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom - that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself. ↗