A blueberry the size of a golf ball

Australian fresh produce company Costa Group recently set a new Guinness Record for the world’s heaviest blueberry, with a 20.4-gram fruit, roughly the size of a golf ball. The record-breaking blueberry was from the Eterna variety and picked up from Costa’s berry farm in Corindi, New South Wales, known for yielding consistently large fruit without compromising on flavour. The grower said that this blueberry was one of at least 20 fruits of similar size spotted during harvesting. The fruit beat the former heaviest blueberry by over 4 grams. The previous world record was for a 16.20g blueberry grown in Western Australia in 2020.

The world’s largest standing lantern constructed in China

Guinness World Records announced the peony-shaped lantern made for the 2024 Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon at Luoyang’s Peony Pavilion measures 147 feet and 8.83 inches long, 81 feet and 5.95 inches tall, and 64 feet and 7.59 inches wide.

The lantern was handmade by a team of 200 artisans to resemble a peony, the city’s official flower. The finished lantern weighs in at 99,208 pounds and requires an 88,184-pound counterweight to remain standing.

The world’s largest frog facing extinction

The Goliath Frog, the largest living frog on earth, is facing extinction after a 50% decline in population in the last three generations.

The Goliath Frog reaches up to 13 inches long (32 cm) from snout to vent, and weighs up to 7.2 lb (3.25 kg). However, its tiny habitat range in Africa’s Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea makes it vulnerable to human-related habitat destruction.

At the peak hunting season between November and April, at least 20,000 Goliath frogs are hunted for they are considered a delicacy in south-western Cameroon, with one Goliath frog fetching up to $15, a pretty sum for the region.

Scientists estimate that Goliath frogs have been around for 250 million years, but we still know so little about them. And if nothing is done to protect them, they could become extinct in just a few years.

The world’s shortest doctor

Ganesh Baraiya, a 23-year-old from Gujarat, India, become the world’s shortest doctor despite facing discrimination due to his height. Doctors diagnosed Ganesh with an incurable condition at the age of four. Despite the challenges, Ganesh applied for an MBBS degree but was initially rejected by the Medical Council of India due to his dwarfism.

Undeterred, Ganesh fought tirelessly for his right to study medicine, eventually winning his case in India’s Supreme Court in 2018. He successfully enrolled in an MBBS program the following year and now works as an intern at Sir-T Hospital in Bhavnagar, a testament to his perseverance and resilience.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 6th, 2024