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Published online 21 June 2002 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news020617-10
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Throwing behaviour and the mass distribution of geological hand samples, hand grenades and Olduvian manuports
Stockpiling rocks as weapons may have preceded sculpting them into tools.
Our instinctive feel for the ideal projectile could explain the design of hand-grenades, the collecting habits of geologists, the size of handballs and the weight of the imperial pound, says an engineer.
Understanding that instinct could illuminate the lives of prehistoric hominids, believes Alan Cannell, who lives in Curitiba, Brazil.
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