Largest recycled plastic sculpture

A life-size whale sculpture, located at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in San Francisco, has been deemed the largest recycled plastic sculpture by Guinness World Records.

The sculpture, which was made to highlight the issue of ocean pollution and the amount of plastic that gets dumped into the sea, is made up of recycled materials such as plastic bottles, toys and milk jugs, among other items.

The whale has measurements of 84 feet, 11.6 inches long; 26 feet, 5.8 inches wide and reaches a height of 13 feet, 9.6 inches tall.

Local artists Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova designed the whale and attempted to make it as life-like as possible. Guinness World Records released a video on YouTube of the whale’s construction and the process of using recycled plastic.

“Every nine minutes 300,000 pounds of plastic — the weight of a blue whale — makes its way into the ocean,” an aquarium spokesperson said. “To draw attention to this enormous problem, we built this life-sized installation to get the word out and educate people. It allows people to interact with the sculpture and experience the issue to scale.”

Book, 82 years overdue, returned to library

An Irish library was surprised after a rare book was returned 80 years past its due date. The Donegal County Library confirmed a copy of the Annie M.P. Smithson book The White Owl was returned to its Gaoth Dobhair location, nearly 82 years after it was checked out in 1937.

The Donegal County Library shared photos of the book and its library stamp on Twitter. The book was checked out July 23, 1937.

“Better late than never! It took nearly 82 years, but the book The White Owl by Annie M.P. Smithson finally found its way back home to Donegal Library Services,” the post reads.

Did bedbugs survive the impact event that wiped out dinosaurs?

DNA analysis of some 30 different bed bug species showed that the insect has been around for at least 115 million years. Previously, scientists suggested bed bugs emerged between 50 and 60 million years ago. Bats were supposedly the blood-suckers’ first victims. But the latest findings — published in the journal Current Biology — proved the insect predates the bat by some 50 million years.

“To think that the pests that live in our beds today evolved more than 100 million years ago and were walking the Earth side by side with dinosaurs, was a revelation,” Mike Siva-Jothy, professor of animal and plant sciences at the University of Sheffield, said in a news release. “It shows that the evolutionary history of bed bugs is far more complex than we previously thought.”

Siva-Jothy and his research partners spent 15 years collecting bed bug specimens from remote caves and cliffs. They are hopeful the findings will help them better understand how bedbugs evolved over the years and the new ways of controlling them.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 1st, 2019