He cited as an example the scarcity of girls taking A-Level physics.

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Of those studying A-level physics, only 20% are girls.

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"Each element of the study indicated that A-level physics had become easier over time and even the majority of teachers attributed rising pass rates over the past decade to this, " he said.

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Dr David Milstead of the department of physics at the University of Liverpool has investigated the changing nature of the A and AS-level physics programme.

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Score, which represents science teachers plus leading scientific institutions including the Royal Society and the Institute of Physics is concerned that A-level funding changes will have "detrimental effects on the offering and uptake of science A-levels".

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"If you extrapolate these results, Greenland is going to be a serious contributor to global sea-level rise" in coming years, said Peter Wadhams, a professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, England, who wasn't involved in the Science study.

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My desperation is lessened, however, by some of the more quantum physics theory which seems to suggest that, if at a sub-atomic level quarks can be in two places at once, then logically there must be a parallel universe where NZ were 130 all out and we are about to win.

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