Why the ball is that shape – Football is a rough game. Does the unique shape of the American football have something to do with this? It’s almost impossible to pick up off the ground, so if they get a chance, players just jump on top of it, and often a pile up ensues.Early football and rugby games used balls made from inflated pig bladders. Eventually they became covered with leather and stitched together by laces (those laces are still on today’s balls).
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(No, not that kind!) In 2003, a massive heat wave struck and killed some 30,000 people in Europe in an area where heat was not considered a major threat. Similar mass die-offs occur in wild birds and some mammals during heat waves, but unlike humans, birds may not be able to take shelter or find fresh water in order to survive devastating heat. Sometimes science is RIGHT, and if birds could talk, what would they tell us about the changing climate?
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Science isn’t all bad: Video is getting more realistic all the time and that goes for video games as well. They can be useful and virtual reality can be more than a game. Scientists use it to explore human behavior in ways that were not possible in the past, by putting people in virtual situations and asking them questions. It can be used to train future astronauts for weightlessness as well.
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The skeletal remains of a prehistoric boy that were found in an underwater cave in Mexico 4 years ago. At more than 10,000 years old, they are among the oldest human bones found in the Americas. The partial skeletons of three other ancient people have also been found by divers inside flooded caves. Anthropologists hope the body will help them trace ancient human migration to the Americas from Asia, something many scientists have denied for a long time.
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