Engineering students in Belfast have set a world record with a 100ft bridge made from Meccano.

A total of 11,000 pieces of lightweight metal went in to the span across part of the River Lagan. A Guinness World Records official yesterday confirmed it has set a record for the world’s largest Meccano construction

Professor Trevor Whittaker from Queen’s University Belfast strode across it wearing a harness.

“We are basically training young people, training them to think, training them to dream, but dreaming alone is simply not good enough, you have to take the thing to another stage, you have to deliver at the end of the day.”

The bridge over Clarendon Dock was built by a group of third year civil engineering students and school children. It has around 70,000 nuts or bolts.

Moroccan emperor’s baby feat

Scientists who concluded it is possible for one man to father 888 children were among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobels at Harvard University, which honour humorous scientific achievement.

Elisabeth Oberzaucher and a colleague at the University of Vienna in Austria won the maths prize for figuring out whether it was possible for Moroccan emperor Moulay Ismael to have sired 888 children - and that is the conservative estimate.

Ismael fathered the children during a roughly 30-year reign that ended in 1727. It sounds exhausting, but the bottom line is, yes, it is possible to father that many children if he had sex daily. The study found that it could be done with as few as 65 women, not the 500 in his harem.

Ban on ice cream vans?

Tim Farron has declared that “Mr Whippy is safe in my hands” amid concerns that a Liberal Democrat policy proposal could spell the end for ice cream vans.

At their conference in Bournemouth the Lib Dems will vote on a policy to reduce air pollution by banning diesel-engined vehicles from keeping their engines running while parked.

A blanket ban could prevent ice cream vans from using their engines to power the freezers and machines used to dispense cornets and 99s.

Boa constrictor on the loose

An eight-foot snake escaped from its home, UK police warned yesterday. The boa constrictor – known for holding its prey in a lethal grip – went missing from a home in Kells, Whitehaven, Cumbria police said.

The snake, which is a household pet, escaped after being left momentarily unattended while being cleaned on Friday evening.

A to ZE for gender pronouns

Harvard University is starting to ask its students which gender pronouns they want to be referred by - and is adding more options to the usual “he” and “she”.

The registration form includes gender-neutral options like “ze”, and gives new options to transgender students and those who do not identify as male or female. In the past, forms required them to choose between “male” and “female”.

Experts say colleges are changing as they recognise the growing population of transgender students, and many have created special campus housing for the group, but changes have sparked backlash at some schools. The University of Tennessee removed a guide to gender-neutral pronouns on its website after it drew outrage from state senators.

Low-level job interviews

When a northern Indian state announced a few hundred job openings for low-level office workers who run errands and make tea, they were staggered by the response – about 2.3 million people applied.

Applicants for the 368 jobs with the government of Uttar Pradesh - which pay about 16,000 rupees (£150) a month – included hundreds with doctorates and other advanced degrees.

Senior administrative officer Prabhat Mittal said the state government will conduct a written exam to screen the applicants because interviewing all of them would take four years.