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GIRLS can’t throw, say American government scientists, and that’s
official—or as official as a verdict can be when it’s based on a study
into the ability of a few dozen human volunteers and monkeys to chuck things
into a bucket.

Barroom bores will take the findings as conclusive evidence of male
superiority. But researchers from the US National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development were concerned with a loftier subject: how a “neurologically
demanding task” such as aimed throwing may have contributed to the evolution of
human characteristics such as upright posture and right-handedness.

The researchers made 25…

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