Beetles threaten books at Hungary’s oldest library

A major beetle infestation has hit Hungary’s 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey, threatening 100,000 hand-bound books in one of the country’s oldest and most valuable libraries.

The drugstore beetle, usually found in dry food, was discovered in adhesives used in books. Around a quarter of the abbey’s 400,000 volumes are affected, prompting a full-scale disinfection effort. The books are being crated and sealed in oxygen-free bags for six weeks to kill the insects.

The abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 996, houses 19 codices including a complete 13th-century Bible, several hundred pre-printing manuscripts and thousands of rare 16th-century books.

Rising temperatures from climate change are believed to be a factor, allowing beetles to multiply faster. The abbey aims to reopen the library early next year, once all items are inspected, vacuumed and any damaged books are restored.

Woman sets record with 4,060 jigsaw puzzles

Liza Fireman, from Bellevue, Washington, has earned a Guinness World Record for owning the largest collection of jigsaw puzzles — 4,060 in total. She began collecting in 2019, mainly favouring Ravens burger puzzles for their quality and design. Her collection surpasses the previous record of 2,022 held by John Walczak in 2023. It features a wide variety of themes, including Disney, Friends, James Bond, Hello Kitty, and Wicked. “I didn’t aim for a record — I just fell in love with puzzling,” Fireman said.

Largest Mars meteorite sells for $5.3M

A 25-kg Martian meteorite, NWA 16788, sold for $5.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, becoming the most valuable meteorite ever auctioned.

Found in November 2023 in Niger’s Sahara Desert, it was blasted off Mars by an asteroid and travelled 140 million miles to Earth. Measuring nearly 15 x 11 x 6 inches, it’s about 70 percent larger than any other Mars rock on Earth and makes up seven percent of known Martian material here.

Tests identified it as an olivine-microgabbroic shergottite, a rare rock formed from cooled magma, with a glassy surface from its fiery descent through Earth’s atmosphere.

Rare dinosaur skeleton sold for $30.5M

A nearly complete juvenile Ceratosaurus skeleton, estimated at 150 million years old, sold for $30.5 million at Sotheby’s Natural History auction in New York City. Measuring 6 feet tall and 11 feet long, it’s the only known young specimen of its kind — smaller than a T. rex but similar in build.

The fossil was unearthed in 1996 at Bone Cabin Quarry in Wyoming and later reconstructed by Utah-based Fossilogic using 140 real bones and sculpted elements.

Sotheby’s confirmed the anonymous buyer plans to loan it to an institution.

This marks the third-highest dino sale ever, after last year’s record-breaking $44.6M Stegosaurus.

Published in Dawn, Young World, Aug 2nd, 2025