a) Our sun shines because its centre is like a hydrogen bomb gowing off in slow motion. It is now about half way through its life, so it should keep us in sunshine for another 5000 million years.
b) When a supernova explodes, it suddenly glows a billion time brighter than our sun-but only for a few days. Then it quickly fades.
c) In 1984 a Scottish surgeon invented a scalpel which cuts around corners. With this new knife delicate cuts can be made at exactly the right angle to free treat valves thickened disease.
d) Taste is a very crude, undeveloped sense. Taste buds need 25,000 times more chemical particles to activate them than are needed to trigger the sense of smell.
e) In 1969, the first live television pictures were transmitted from the moon. Thwy were watched by an estimated 723 million viewers around the world.
f) In France, the National Centre for Scientific Research has developed a solar driven air-conditioning system which can deliver warm or cool air to a building.
g) In the 1940s, Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, introduced the idea of the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’.
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A robot may not injure a human being, or allow a human being to come to harm.
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A robot must obey orders given by human beings, except were such orders conflict with the first law.
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A robot must protect itself, as long as such protection does not conflict with the first and second laws.
h) There are almost a million different kind of animals-and more are being discovered every year. The largest animal on earth is the blue whale and the smallest can only be seen under a powerful microscope.