Mantis named after Attenborough

Belgian scientists have named a new ‘very large and robust’ Vietnamese sub-species of praying mantis after 94-year-old British television naturalist David Attenborough, “one of the world’s most beloved naturalists”.

According to the Royal Belgian Society of Entomology, a recent expedition to the Annamite mountains, in central Vietnam, uncovered a mantis now known as ‘titanodula attenboroughi’.

The insect is a “very large and robust praying mantis. Head triangular, antennae filiform. Long but robust pronotum, with smooth dorsal surface.”

Attenborough, a director of progra­ming for the BBC in the 1970s, is best known for presenting an ambitious series of wildlife documentaries, beginning with Life on Earth in 1979.

World’s smallest Rubik’s Cube

The world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube has gone on sale to mark the 40th anniversary of the original 3D puzzle. The tiny, but playable, cube made of ‘ultra-precision metal’, measures just 9.9 millimetres across and weighs two grams. It is on sale in Japan at a cost of 198,000 yen (£1,480) for delivery in December.

Rubik’s Cube was invented by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik in the 1970s before a company in the US turned it into a hit product in the 1980s. The new tiny cube was shown at an exhibition in Tokyo organised by the Hungarian embassy, which also includes an artwork made with Rubik’s Cubes.

Rare ‘teapot’ found in garage

A small ‘teapot’ found by a British man while cleaning out a garage filled with family relics, was recently auctioned for nearly $500,000.

Hansons Auctioneers said the anonymous seller was cleaning out boxes from a family-owned garage in Church Gresley, Derbyshire, England, when he came across the ‘teapot’ his mother used to display at his childhood home.

“We believe it was brought back to England by my grandfather who was stationed in the Far East during the Second World War and was awarded a Burma Star,” the seller said. He nearly donated to a thrift store, but decided to have it appraised and was surprised to learn it was an 18th century Chinese wine ewer that may have been used in the palace of Emperor Qianlong. There are two “nearly identical” items known to exist and they are housed at museums in China and Taiwan.

Strange sea creatures in Antarctica

Some alien-like organisms are uncove­red in a documentary The Secrets of Antarctica which has been shared by scientists on YouTube to document their journey.

The on-going mission has seen an international team using state-of-the-art technology to scan the seabed. In it, Dr Dave Bowden recounts his astonishment over the weird life forms with strange characteristics.

Among the finds were sea lilies called crinoids which had only been seen before in fossil records, a sea spider which grows very large legs and has a tiny body and other bizarre finds such as sponges.

He said: “The reason is the Antarctic continental shelf has been isolated from the rest of the planet for many, many years.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, October 10th, 2020