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Science News
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The recent discovery in the US of a cow suffering from BSE or mad cow disease has prompted a group of scientists at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicin... |
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Bees have become the latest organism, and the third insect after fruit flies and mosquitos, to have their genetic blueprint decoded. A team of scientists in Texas led by Dr. Ri... |
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A group of villagers in indonesia are claiming to have caught the world’s biggest snake – a python nearly 50 feet in length, weighing over 70 stone. If the report i... |
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Love them or hate them, GM crops look set to stay and farmers could be planting the UK’s first commercial GM crops this spring. That’s if the government accepts the... |
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Researchers announced recently that some giant sharks are partial to snacking on colossal squid, mysterious deep-sea beasts that we know hardly anything about and which are pro... |
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Dr. Doolittle may have been able to talk with the animals, but could he fart with them too ? That's what he may have had to do if he wanted to chat with a herring. Researchers ... |
| Fact or Fiction
There are 5 times as many kangaroos in Australia as people?
 
It's False
- The estimated population of the 4 most common kangaroos in Australia
is 50 million while in 2003 there were just under 20 million people living
in Australia so it’s closer to 2.5.
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A compass from earth would still work on Mars
 
It's False
– A compass contains a small magnet which aligns itself with the
Earth’s magnetic field so that the needle always points to the north
pole. Scientists have not yet discovered why but Mars lost its magnetic
field over 4000 million years ago and so a compass would not help you
to find your way around.
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Camels can go without water for a month, which is why they are
so ideal for desert travel.
 
It's False – Camels are known as
ships of the desert because they can carry heavy loads and ideally adapted
to life in the desert. Their humps store fat which shrink if they do not
eat, they can close their noses and their eyes have long lashes and an
extra eyelid, which they can see through, to keep sand out of their eyes
during sandstorms. But the best they can do is 10 days without water.
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All snakes have poisonous venom?
 
It's False . Not all snakes
have poison fangs but some are just as deadly because they can squeeze
their prey to death, like the Boa Constrictor.
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Birds can fly at 37,000 feet the same height as airliners
 
It's True - In November 29, 1973, a Ruppell's griffon, an
African vulture, collided with an airliner at 37,000 feet over Abidjan
on the Ivory Coast, damaging one of the plane's engines. Feathered remains
of the bird allowed the National Museum of Natural History in the United
States to positively identify the species.
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The name for a group of lions is a prowl ?
 
It's False . The
name we give to a group of lions living together is a pride.
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The 3 bones in the ear that help you to hear are called the hammer,
anvil and saddle
 
It's False – they are the malleus,
incus or stapes (pron. Stay-peas), also known as the hammer, anvil and
stirrup.
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Venus is the closest planet to the sun?
 
It's False . Mercury
is the closest planet to the sun in our solar system, Venus is the second
closest.
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Snakes shed their skins about 1000 times in their lifetimes
 
It's False – Snakes shed their skins upto 300 times during their
lifetime. They shed their old skin when they grow, once a new one has
been produced underneath the old one.
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The biggest frog in the world over 70 cms long?
 
It's True .
With their legs stretched out backwards the Goliath frog can measure over
70cm from its nose to it’s feet, and its eyes are the same size
as a human adult.
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