Hot air balloon record. Famous Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov set a new world record for circling the globe solo in just 11 days. At times he flew as high as 10,000 meters, with temperatures dropping to -56C, causing his oxygen mask and drinking water to freeze. The Telegraph. Check out the video.
Smallest hard disk. A team of scientists at Delft University developed a disk that writes information atom by atom and reached a storage density of 500 Terabits per square inch (Tbpsi), 500 times better than the best commercial hard disk currently available. TUDelft.
Dragon ants. A group of Japanese entomologists discovered four new species of ants and named two of them after dragons in the popular Game of Thrones series. P. viserion and P. drogon show off distinctive large spines protruding from their dorsal plates. SciNews.
New UNESCO sites. UNESCO added 21 new cultural, natural and mixed sites in 2016. They include Western Tien Shan mountains in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Gorham’s Caves in UK and works of modern architect Le Corbusier. UNESCO.
Beer tastes better with music. Just in time for summer festivals, the Brussels Beer Project in collaboration with UK band The Editors came to a conclusion that music, have along with a range of multisensory information, can influence how much a person likes the taste of beer. Frontiers in Psychology.
Photo credit: Business Insider.
