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“Lots Of Room For Zero-G Fun” On New Commercial Spacecraft

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More than 500 people—including American actor Ashton Kutcher—will become “astronauts” next year.

They have each paid $200,000 for a two-hour flight on SpaceShipTwo.

The aircraft will take them very high and very fast—in fact, they will break the sound barrier.

A British company called Virgin Galactic, which is owned by a well-known and famously daring billionaire named Sir Richard Branson, tested its new aircraft last week.

During the test, the spacecraft flew 69,000 feet high over the Mojave Desert, in the U.S.

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News Science

Want To Be An Astronaut? A New Post Has Just Opened Up

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Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield will soon be simply, “Mr. Hadfield.”

That’s because he has announced that he is resigning.

In this case, “resigning” means stopping his job as an astronaut.

Hadfield has been an astronaut for 35 years.

Recently, he gained wide popularity after sending photos and videos to Earth from the International Space Station.

Many people around the world enjoyed his tweets and Facebook posts from space.

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Animals Science

New Species Of Dinosaur Found In Alberta

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A dome-headed dinosaur skull found in southern Alberta is helping scientists rethink some of their ideas about dinosaurs.

The skull was found in 2008 by a team of scientists led by Dr. David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum.

The skull is about 85 million years old.

The top of the skull is made of a dome-shaped mass of solid bone about 10 centimetres thick.

This means the dinosaur belonged to a group of dinosaurs called pachycephalosaurs (“thick-headed lizards”).

The scientists compared the skull to all of the known pachycephalosaur specimens in the world – about 600 of them.

They learned that there are 16 different species within that group, and the skull discovered in Alberta belongs to a species that has never been seen before.

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Science

Scientists Discover Cause Of Irish Potato Famine

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It’s well known that in the 1840s, Ireland suffered from a disaster known as the Irish potato famine.

“Famine” means a “shortage of food.”

More than a quarter of the population of Ireland died or left the country from 1845 to 1852 because of the famine.

For much of the country at the time, potatoes were the main source of food.

The famine had a big effect on Ireland; for one thing, its population is not yet back to pre-famine levels.

The famine happened because the country’s potatoes caught a disease.

At the time, no one knew what the disease was or how to cure it.

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Environment News

NBA Star Donates $1-Million To Oklahoma Relief Efforts

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To help his home city “bounce back” after a terrible storm, NBA player Kevin Durant has donated $1-million.

The number of people harmed by a recent tornado in the U.S. state of Oklahoma was greatly reduced, thanks to a special early-warning system.

On Monday, a major tornado hit Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

A tornado is a violent storm that usually looks like a whirling funnel.

Residents were warned there was a big storm coming, and possibly a tornado, days before it arrived.

When it actually hit, sirens blared, giving people a 16-minute head start to find shelter.

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News Science

First Human Colony Planned For Mars

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A Dutch business owner is looking for people who want to live on Mars.

He believes that with proper preparation, a human settlement can exist on the Red Planet.

He said the settlement would provide valuable information for those who support and study life beyond Earth.

The project is called Mars One and nearly 80,000 people–including 35 Canadians–have applied to start a new life on Mars.

Those who are chosen to go would set up a colony, similar to a city.

Supplies for the colony will be sent to Mars beginning in 2016.

The first four settlers are scheduled to be transported to Mars in 2023.

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Animals News

Non-Venomous Python Found In Winnipeg Dumpster

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A Winnipeg resident was surprised on Tuesday to discover a five-foot Ball python in a dumpster behind an apartment building.

The snake is not poisonous.

The resident called police; one of the officers used a small recycling box to corral and hold the snake.

The police then called the city’s animal services department.

They came right away and rescued the animal.

Ball pythons are a bit smaller than most pythons. Ball pythons are about one metre long.

Police said that finding a snake in this way is extremely rare—it almost never happens.

The person who discovered the snake had been putting out their garbage and heard a noise; they saw a snake moving around.

The snake will be held until a good home can be found for it.

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Kids Science

Chris Hadfield Sings With Hundreds Of Thousands Of Schoolchildren

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I’m watching history happen, right in front of my eyes.

It’s 12:30 Eastern Time on Monday, May 6.

On my computer screen, I’m watching a live satellite feed from space.

An astronaut is singing and playing guitar. He’s singing a song he wrote (with Canadian songwriter Ed Robertson from the band the Barenaked Ladies) called I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)?

But the really exciting part is something I can’t see. Hundreds of thousands of children in Canada and throughout the world are also singing, right at this moment, singing the very same song.

It’s part of Music Monday, which is an annual event in Canada that began in 2005. Each year, a song is chosen and school children across the country learn it so they can sing it at the same time on the same day.

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News Science

IBM Produces World’s Smallest Movie–Made Of Atoms

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It’s about a boy and an atom.

And it may just be the world’s most impressive stop-motion film.

That’s because the film is made entirely of atoms.

Stop-motion animation is a way of making a movie using still pictures.

One company, a computer company called IBM, has made the world’s smallest—and arguably the most amazing—stop-motion video.

The video features a boy named Atom playing with a “ball” (really an atom) and bouncing on a trampoline. It’s a simple film, but its importance is enormous.

That’s because, rather than a doll, the filmmakers used atoms.

An atom is a microscopic piece of matter. Atoms can’t be seen with the naked eye, or even a normal microscope, because they are too small.

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Environment News

Earth Day Becomes Earth Month

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Yesterday was Earth Day.

The annual celebration of the environment was first held in 1970.

But it wasn’t until 1990 that 141 countries put on special events at the same time to make people aware of environmental issues.

Now Earth Day is celebrated every April 22 in more than 150 countries.

In Canada, because there are so many events happening to commemorate Earth Day, the country now celebrates Earth Week and even Earth Month in some places.

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