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14731. Science Facts
In 1986, 92 people were killed in Bangladesh by giant hailstones weighing up to 1 kilogram (2 pounds 3 ounces) each. 14732. Science Facts
Sometimes frozen blocks of toilet waste flushed from aeroplanes fall to earth. 14733. Science Facts
The scientific name for fear of slime is blennophobia. 14734. Science Facts
The English rhyme Ring-a-Ring-o'-Roses dates from the time of the bubonic plague.The ‘roses' refer to red spots that appeared before boils started, the ‘posies' to flowers people carried around to counteract the bad air that they thought caused plague, and the sneezing was an early symptom. 14735. Science Facts
In the Middle Ages, people thought they could cure the medical condition rheumatism by carrying a dead shrew in their pockets. 14736. Science Facts
The Fore people of Papua New Guinea traditionally eat the bodies of their dead relatives, including the brain. During the 1950s to 1960s an outbreak of the disease kuru was traced to the practice and people were dissuaded from enjoying the usual funeral meal. 14737. Science Facts
Scientists are working on a design for a spacecraft that will be partly fuelled by burning astronauts' faeces. 14738. Science Facts
Some babies are born still enclosed in the sac that holds the fluid in which they develop in the womb. It used to be considered a sign of good luck.World War II leader Winston Churchill was born like this. 14739. Science Facts
In the nineteenth century, arsenic was often used to create green colouring. A cake with green icing, coloured with arsenic, killed children who ate it at a birthday party, prompting chemists to ask for laws about what could be used in foods. 14740. Science Facts
A new design for a rat trap sends a text message to a pest controller when it kills a rat, so that the rat can be quickly removed before it starts to decompose and smell. 14741. Science Facts
Sometimes fish or frogs fall from the sky like rain – and there have been cases of a shower of meat (lumps of lung and muscle) and a rain of maggots. 14742. Science Facts
Taking a bath in the water used to wash a corpse was thought to cure epilepsy. 14743. Science Facts
Using genetic engineering techniques, scientists have a made a mouse that glows in the dark. 14744. Science Facts
There are about 4,000 microbes above every 6.4 square centimetres (1 square inch) of ground. 14745. Science Facts
Bodies buried in lead-lined coffins sometimes explode, as gases from the rotting body are held in by the strong metal. If they are dug up and opened, bits of body can fly out in all directions. 14746. Science Facts
Equipment retrieved from the moon in the 1970s contained germs left there in 1967 – they were still alive. 14747. Science Facts
The strangler fig grows from a seed dropped on another tree in bird or opossum faeces. It grows roots around the host tree and shades its leaves, eventually strangling the host tree to death. 14748. Science Facts
Plants aren't as harmless as they seem.There are more than 600 types of carnivorous plants – plants that eat animals or insects. 14749. Science Facts
Pitcher plants have a deep funnel filled with acid that dissolves any insects or small animals that fall into it. The dead creatures are used as food by the plant. 14750. Science Facts
A zookeeper in Germany tried to treat an elephant for constipation with laxative foods and an enema (pumping oil into its anus through a tube). His cure was effective – the elephant produced 90 kilograms (200 pounds) of faeces, which landed on the keeper and suffocated him. 
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