Man solves Rubik’s cube while underwater

Daryl Tan Hong An, 21, from Singapore, solved a 3-by-3-by-3 Rubik’s cube while submerged in a pool in a record-breaking time of 9.29 seconds!

The speedcuber has numerous Guinness World Records titles to his name, including the fastest time to solve a 4-by-4-by-4 rotating puzzle cube upside down, the fastest time to solve two rotating puzzle cubes simultaneously while suspended upside down, the fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube while juggling, fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube on a hoverboard and fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube while controlling a ping pong ball.

His best time for regular speedcubing is 5.88 seconds, short of the world record time of 3.13 seconds set by Max Park of California.

Tiny moon discovered around an asteroid

The little asteroid visited by Nasa’s Lucy spacecraft recently had a big surprise for scientists — asteroid Dinkinesh has a dinky sidekick, a mini-moon. The discovery was made during a flyby of Dinkinesh, 300 million miles away in the main asteroid belt beyond Mars. The spacecraft snapped a picture of the pair when it was about 270 miles out.

In data and images beamed back to Earth, Dinkinesh is confirmed to be barely a half-mile (790 metres) across. Its closely circling moon is a mere one-tenth-of-a-mile in size.

Dinkinesh means “you are marvellous” in the Amharic language of Ethiopia. It’s also the Amharic name for Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old remains of a human ancestor found in Ethiopia in the 1970s, for which the spacecraft is named.

Extremely obese stray dog

Krugets, a stray dog in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, has become so fat that he can barely get up. The stray dog was so fat that he howled in pain every night, and barely managed to get up on all fours because of the unbearable joint pain. The dog weighed a whopping 99.9 kilogrammes (220 lbs) and no one could understand how a stray could become so heavy.

Currently, Krugets’ tests, his necessary diet, and all the pain medications are funded by the volunteers. Though he still has to take pain medications, his loving nature has melted the hearts of many. It is hoped that he gets adopted by a loving family, since he is only five years old and has lots of love to offer.

A light exosuit that helps people sprint faster

Scientists at South Korea’s Chung-Ang University’s School of Mechanical Engineering have created an ultra-light exosuit that can help runners cover short distances faster.

The contraption only weighs around 2.5 kg (5.5lbs), but can help the average person run a 200-metre sprint, almost a second faster than without the suit.

To test their suit, scientists had amateur runners put it on and go for 200-metre runs. Then, each runner completed the same distance without the suit. Data showed that the exosuit helped people improve their time by 0.97 seconds, which may not sound like much, but is actually a pretty significant margin for a sprint. Now researchers plan to test it with professional sprinters.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 25TH, 2023