Interesting & funny news from around the world, Интересные и забавные новости со всего мира

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Ancient predatory worms have scientists rethinking the history of life on Earth

500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. Basically all life lived in the water, which held a lot of animals that looked pretty different from the ones we recognize today.

One of these was a group of predatory worms with throats covered in spines, hooks and teeth to trap their prey. They built tubes around themselves and lived inside of them, waiting for their next victim to crawl by.

Scientists have known for a while that these approximately inch-long terrors lived during the Cambrian period, roughly 500 million years ago. But the end of the Cambrian period was marked by a mass extinction, so Nanglu and other researchers researchers thought that these Selkirkia worms had been left behind like much of the other marine life at the time.

But a paper recently published in the journal Biology Letters by Nanglu and paleobiologist Javier Ortega-Hernández showed examples of a new species of this Selkirkia worm in the fossil record 25 million years after researchers thought they'd vanished from the Earth. Nanglu says this finding may change how scientists understand life in different periods of Earth's ancient history.

"From the biological perspective, maybe some of these boundaries are a little bit more fuzzy than we previously thought," he says.

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A physicist who dropped out of post-graduate school to raise her family 75 years ago was awarded an honorary PhD at the age of 98.

Rosemary Fowler was studying at the University of Bristol in 1948 when she discovered the kaon particle, but she left academia before earning her doctorate when she married fellow physicist Peter Fowler in 1949.

Sir Paul Nurse, the chancellor of the University of Bristol, said Fowler "paved the way for critical discoveries that continue to shape the work of today's physicists, and our understanding of the universe."

Fowler was 22 when she discovered a particle that decayed into three pions. This particle was later dubbed the kaon.

"I knew at once that it was new and would be very important. We were seeing things that hadn't been seen before — that's what research in particle physics was. It was very exciting," she said.

Fowler was made an honorary Doctor of Science in a private graduation ceremony near her Cambridge home.

"I'm really pleased for my mother," daughter Mary Fowler said. "As a child I wanted to be a physicist because it seemed to be so exciting. With both parents being physicists, physics and research was a normal topic of conversation across the kitchen table. "

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Tortoise on the tracks gets a ride on London commuter train

A commuter train near London was briefly delayed when a tortoise was caught "trespassing" on the tracks, but the animal quickly became a "shellebrity" aboard a train.

Network Rail Wessex wrote on social media that a train headed for Bagshot was delayed at the Ascot station because "there was a trespasser of an unusual nature on the tracks."

The rail operator said the tortoise quickly became a "shellebrity" when he was brought aboard the next train heading into Ascot from Aldershot.

Officials initially made arrangements to take the tortoise to a local veterinarian, but he owner of the animal came forward to be reunited with their pet, named Solomon.

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Breaching whale tosses boat over

Brothers Colin and Wyatt Yeager captured footage of a breaching whale flipping over a boat off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H.

Two fishermen were thrown overboard but were not hurt in the incident. The brothers witnessed the scene and rescued the men.

"I was actually shocked by their reaction," Wyatt Yeager told Fox Weather. "They were doing fine. They were smiling. They were like, 'Wow, this is crazy.' They were just happy that they were OK, the whale was OK."

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Australian ultramarathoner sets record for fastest crossing of Malaysia

Australian ultramarathoner Natalie Dau has set a new record for the fastest crossing of Peninsular Malaysia on foot.

Dau covered over 700 kilometers from Kelantan in the north to Johor Bahru in the south in eight days and 46 minutes. This accomplishment adds to her growing list of ultramarathon achievements, which began with her debut race in 2019.

Dau was well-prepared for this challenge, with ten championship titles and races ranging from 50 km to 200 km. Her crossing was part of Project 1,000, a 1,000 km journey from Thailand to Singapore.

To tackle the course, she ran between 85 to 95 km daily, starting as early as 12:35 a.m. to avoid the heat, while managing an infection throughout the attempt.

"The last 20 km of each day were the hardest I've ever experienced," Dau said.

Dau went on this journey to raise money for a global charity that supports girls and women through sports called GRLS.

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Gizmo the dog went missing in Las Vegas in 2015. He’s been found alive after 9 years

Judith Monarrez crumpled onto her kitchen floor and wept when the news arrived in an email: Gizmo, her pet dog missing for nine years, had been found alive.

Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2 years old, slipped past a faulty gate in the backyard of their home in Las Vegas.

The decade that followed brought a lot of change. Monarrez, now 37, moved into her own home, earned a master’s degree in English, and began her teaching career in higher education. But throughout the years, Monarrez said, she never stopped trying to find Gizmo.

Now, she was climbing into her car to drive across town to meet Gizmo at an animal hospital. Monarrez was later told that a woman had found the now 11-year-old dog and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering the email notification that sent Monarrez to her knees, crying.

Within hours of receiving that email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner’s arms. Monarrez called it “a miracle.”

“Hindsight is 2020,” she said. “I’m so glad I registered his microchip.”

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I'm the UK Tetris champion - and here are my top tips for packing your car for a family summer getaway

DanV, the country's reigning champion at Tetris - the computer game that involves neatly stacking shapes - has joined forces with Dacia to 'provide his top tips' to 'successfully pack the boot of your car with minimal stress', using his years of Tetris experience.

His first tip? Organisation.

The champ says: 'Just like in Tetris, recognising patterns and knowing the shapes you might encounter is key - identify and categorise your items by size and type. This way, you’ll know exactly where to place your beachwear, snacks, and other essentials, ensuring everything fits perfectly.'

Second on the list? DanV says: 'Keep everything compact. In Tetris, creating gaps can lead to difficult situations, and packing is no different. Compress flexible items like clothes to minimize the space they occupy. By maximizing every inch of your luggage, you can fit more items into smaller spaces without leaving gaps.'

Finally, just like the Tetris matrix has 'limited space' where 'overloading' means 'game over', so does a car boot.

DanV says: 'Pack light. Avoid packing unnecessary items like heavy jackets. Focus on bringing just the essentials and summer necessities like shorts and sandals to keep your luggage light and manageable.'

DanV's advice comes as nearly a quarter of British holidaymakers admit that they struggle to fit everything into their car, according to a survey of 2,000 adults by Dacia.

One in five Brits say they have even had to leave items behind due to a lack of boot space.

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Mysterious fireball over San Diego remains unidentified

A bright fireball that shot across the night sky over southern California was caught on camera, but has yet to be identified.

The security camera at Rebecca Woods' home in San Marcos, near San Diego, recorded the bright light streaking across the sky on the night of July 25.

The American Meteor Society received 34 reports of a fireball shortly after 9:20 p.m, and social media users reported spotting the object around the San Diego area, as well as in New Mexico, across the Mexican border and as far east as Texas.

One New Mexico witness reported seeing the object breaking up.

"Our camera is facing south and the object flew from west to east," Woods told NBC San Diego. "I first thought it might be a Starlink launch because this is the exact trajectory I've seen in previous launches but there was nothing scheduled."

The fireball has yet to be identified, but the most common theories include a meteor or space junk re-entering the atmosphere.

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Two-thirds of Australians support banning pet cats from roaming

A growing number of councils are forcing cat owners to keep the felines confined to their homes to protect wildlife — and most Aussies support the policy.

Australians have more pet cats than ever before — more than five million in total. With the growing number, expectations on pet owners are shifting.

Many cat owners are now voluntarily keeping their cats indoors or in secure runs, and local governments mandate it in some areas. But most pet cats in Australia still roam local streets and gardens.

Broader adoption of keeping cats safe at home would have large benefits for cat welfare, human health, local wildlife and even the economy.


More than a third of local councils in Australia now require cats to be contained overnight or 24 hours a day. Most are in the ACT and Victoria.

Given how good cats are at climbing and jumping, containing cats usually requires keeping them indoors or in secure runs.

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A chef, bodybuilder and social media star added nine Guinness World Records to his name by chopping vegetables at lightning speed — some of them while blindfolded.

Canadian Wallace Wong, 33, aka the Six Pack Chef on TikTok, brought his total number of Guinness World Records titles to 11 by taking on a series of chopping records.

Wong's new titles are most tomatoes cut in one minute, 14; most tomatoes cut in one minute while blindfolded, 9; most slices of celery sliced in 30 seconds, 128; most slices of celery sliced while blindfolded in 30 seconds, 125; fastest time to slice a bell pepper, 9.43; fastest time to slice a bell pepper blindfolded, 10.78; most slices of garlic sliced in 30 seconds, 117; most slices of garlic sliced while blindfolded in 30 seconds, 127; and most chilies chopped in 30 seconds, 13.

Wong said he was surprised to find that, in some cases, his chopping speed actually increased while blindfolded.

"I take away a sense and everything heightens," he told Guinness World Records.

He ended up combining all of his chopped veggies into a meal he dubbed the "world record vegetable noodle dish."

Wong previously made headlines in 2023 for setting the records for most slices of carrots sliced while blindfolded in 30 seconds, 121, and most slices of cucumbers sliced while blindfolded in 30 seconds, 166.

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