World’s largest periodic table

A team of scientists in Michigan have created what they believe to be a new Guinness World Record in the form of the world’s largest periodic table of the elements.

The giant periodic table was officially unveiled at Grand Valley State University’s Allendale campus, Michigan, with an aim to promote STEM education. The effort also coincides with the 150th anniversary of the periodic table.

Scientists from Perrigo Company were on hand to do demonstrations for the public, and officials said volunteers with more than 100 businesses, high schools, colleges and organisations throughout West Michigan, the state and country took part in the project.

It measures 120 yards long by 53.3 yards tall. Each panel consisted of six fastened table clothes, all 18-foot-by-13.5-foot, with the atomic number, element name, element symbol and atomic weight of each element on the panels.

Actor doesn’t blink for more than one hour!

An actor in the Philippines set what is believed to be an unofficial world record when he kept his eyes open without blinking for one hour, 17 minutes and three seconds.

Paolo Ballesteros was competing against comedian Allan K as part of a segment on the Eat Bulaga! variety show that pits celebrities against each other in unusual challenges.

Allan K managed to make it about 34 minutes without blinking, and Ballesteros blew his time out of the water.

Teen tea bag cover collector

A 16-year-old girl in Denmark is a Guinness World Record holder after amassing a collection of 1,237 tea bag covers.

Freja Louise Kristiansen of Aarhus first captured the record in June 2018, when Guinness confirmed she had collected 1,023 tea bag covers, and the record-keeping organisation said this month that the teenager broke her own record by increasing her collection to 1,237.

Kristiansen said she started collecting the covers in 2010, after observing how her grandmother used tea bag covers for crafting projects.

The teenager said she was inspired to aim for the Guinness record in 2017 when she discovered the current record was only 743, and her collection stood at 650.

Giant pumpkin weights 2,295-pound!

The New England giant pumpkin weigh-off announced this year’s winner, which tipped the scales at 2,294.5 pounds, a new record for the competition.

The pumpkin, grown by Connecticut man Alex Noel, dwarfed the competition at the annual weigh-off, which is part of the Topsfield Fair.

The 2,294.5-pound pumpkin is heavier even than a Mitsubishi Eclipse, which is only 2,018 pounds.

The pumpkin was a new record for the contest, but fell short of the world record, a 2,624.6-pound pumpkin grown by Belgian man Mathias Willemijns in 2016.

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 26th, 2019