science Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How Many Times Have We Farted In Human History? A Very Rough Calculation
I was sitting next to my friend on a bus the other day. He farted. It got us thinking: How many farts have there been in human history?...

Brandon Jennings Needs A Refresher In Oblate Spheroids And Lockout Logic
If there was one thing that my high school science teachers taught me, it was that I should immediately lose any delusions about ever becoming a doctor, or doing anything related to memorization or numbers or earth science ever—and I thank them for that. But I think somewhere along the way, I did le...

Science! Proves That Braves Fans Are The Biggest Homers In Baseball
Beyond the Box Score has a fun little post today that explores which teams' players got more All-Star Votes than their performances merited....

We’re Going To Live Forever By Killing Ourselves And Going To Digital Heaven
Earlier this week, a scientist named Aubrey de Grey (that is such a drag queen name) made waves by announcing to the press that the first person to live 150 years has probably already been born, and that it may not be long before human beings are able to live 1,000 years, if not longer, thanks to ge...

Science! Shows That Red Sox Fans Are The Most Obsessed
According to metrics like attendance, revenue and money spent, Boston fans take the title as the most devoted in baseball. Maybe that's true, but Shaughnessy needs to be pelted with feces anyway. [Bundle]...

Official Graph Proves That Steve Nash May Be Missing A Low-Post Presence This Season
Hoopism.com has put together a nice interactive feature with weighted graphs showing who passed where in the 2009-2010 NBA season. It may not shock you to see that Nash had a certain connection with Amar'e Stoudamire last year....

Science Says The Louder The Grunting, The Sweeter The Tennis Shot
Researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Hawaii at Manoa think that grunting might could help tennis players win their matches....

Breaking Down The Greatest Kick Ever, With Science
Roberto Carlos's free kick goal against France in 1997 is the stuff of legend. Some bored physicists, probably tired of looking for the Higgs boson, have figured out exactly how and why it happened....

Science Wins Again: Heavy Drinkers Live Longer
Hey teetotalers: not only are you a drag, you're going to die younger. Live slow, die fast, jerks....

Up Three, Time Winding Down: Do You Foul? Harvard Smartypants Say It Doesn't Matter, We Say Otherwise
Everyone's buzzing about an analysis of last season's college hoops games, that claims to demonstrate that there's no measurable difference between fouling to force two shots, or letting them shoot the three. Here at Wednesday Afternoon Statistician, we beg to differ....

Lucky Underwear Will Save Us All
Science has finally proven that Jason Giambi's slump-busting thong is not weird, but a legitimate form of slump-busting. Thank you, science, for making us all picture Jason Giambi in a thong again. [Well]...

Everyone Has A Theory About Penalty Kicks
We've almost reached the knockout stage, which means we've almost reached our first World Cup match decided by a shootout. And every bozo from your local pub to M.I.T. wants to tell you their unbeatable "secret" to penalty kicks. Hooray....

Science: Skateboarders Get Measurably Gnarlier In The Presence Of Pretty Ladies
Researchers measured skateboarders after every move, and "consistent with predictions, the young men had higher testosterone levels and took bigger risks when good-looking women were watching." [Miller-McCune]...

Sabermetrics Prove Mom Always Loved You Best
Psychologists believe that younger siblings take more risks than their older brothers and sisters. The proof: Among Major League Baseball-playing brother duos, the youngest one stole more bases 90% of the time. Oh, science. You're adorable. [NYTimes]...

Eggheads Explain How To Take The Perfect Penalty
Football is all about physics, so, in many ways, Wayne Rooney isn't just a footballer, he's also a magnificent scientist. It is also, unfortunately, marred by biology — the most annoying of the sciences — from time to time....

Drink Up, Pro Athletes: Kids Couldn't Care Less
Our good friend SCIENCE! is back, this time with a study that indicates that kids don't emulate or idolize their favorite athletes for their drinking habits. So, Roethlisberger, you're off the hook...oh, right, that other stuff... [Drug And Alcohol Review]...

Study Of Most Loved, Loathed Baseball Teams On Internet Fails To Account For Actual Internet
Remember that totally, rigorously, kite-flyingly super-scientific Nielsen Co. study of the most loved and hated teams in baseball, according to the internet? The one that concluded that everyone loves the Giants and hates the Indians? Yeah, one problem:...

3-D Broadcast Fails To Win Over Crowd At Actual 3-D Game
Yesterday, in a stupendous moment of technological flimflammery, the infamously large HDTV that hangs over the field at Cowboys Stadium broadcast stunning 3-D images to the crowd....of the live three-dimensional football game taking place directly below it....

Hey Look, More Things Wrong With NFL Overtime!
As if it weren't enough that a random coin toss essentially decides the winner in a significant majority of overtimes, now comes SCIENCE! to tell us that the flip of the coin may not be so random....

Why Pirates Fans Are The Luckiest Fans In The World
A new study of sports fan psychology concludes that fans who have the most negative emotions toward their team's prospects, get the most enjoyment out of games. So treasure your angst ... because it's more fun that way....