World’s largest mushroom

An Australian 14-year-old is waiting to hear back from Guinness World Records about whether the nearly six-pound mushroom he found is the largest in the world. Jasper Les found the 5.8-pound porcini mushroom while walking home from school in Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

“I was just amazed. I’ve never seen one that big or even close to being that big,” Les told.

His mother, Melanie Les, said she was equally shocked to see what her son brought home. Jasper Les said he is keeping the exact location of the mushroom’s origins a secret.

The family applied to have Jasper’s discovery recognised as a Guinness World Record. The record-keeping agency’s website does not have a listing for largest or heaviest porcini mushroom, but the longest edible mushroom was a 1-foot, 11.2-inch Pleurotus eryngii grown by Japan’s Hokuto Corp. in 2014.

Record apples crushed by hand

A 70-year-old Pakistani man broke a Guinness World Record by using his hand to crush 21 apples in one minute.

Naseem Uddin, 70, whose son, Mohammad Rashid, is a martial artist with 70 Guinness World Records, earned a record of his own by using his grip strength to crush 21 apples.

Rashid bested the previous record of 13 apples, which had been set in England. Naseem Uddin told Guinness World Records that his grip strength comes from years of working with iron as a welder.

Smallest remote-controlled walking robot

A team of North-western University engineers announced the invention of the world’s smallest remote-controlled walking robot, which measures only one-half millimetre wide.

The engineers said in research, published in the journal Science Robotics, that their crab-like robot is smaller than the thickness of a penny. The robots could be used eventually for surgical purposes or making repairs to small-scale machines.

It took the team a year and a half to develop the tiny robots. The robots can walk, twist, turn and jump. They are made of a malleable shape-memory alloy, which moves by changing shape when heat is applied. The necessary heat comes from lasers.

“A laser is a convenient way to do it because we can focus the light to a very tiny spot, and we can scan that spot around to illuminate different parts of the robot’s body in a time sequence,” said John A. Rogers, an engineering professor at the Evanston, Ill., School and co-author of the research study.

World’s oldest dog

A South Carolina couple’s dog was officially dubbed the oldest in the world, at 22 years, 59 days.

Pebbles, a toy fox terrier who belongs to Taylors residents Bobby and Julie Gregory, was named the oldest dog living by Guinness World Records after her age was verified.

The Gregory family decided to apply for Pebbles to be recognised by Guinness after reading about TobyKeith, a 21-year-old chihuahua that was given the title in April. Pebbles was born March 28, 2000, remains healthy and active.

“Pebbles is like a wild teen who loves to sleep during the day and is up all night,” Julie Gregory said.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 11th, 2022