A 38-year-old from Alaska has become the fastest woman to cycle around the world.

Lael Wilcox finished her 29,000-kilometer ride in 108 days, breaking the previous record by more than two weeks.

The American, who is waiting for her record to be confirmed by Guinness World Records, started and ended her journey in Chicago.

However, to break the record, Guinness doesn't ask cyclists to actually ride all the way around the world.

They must start and end in the same place, and their whole journey — including flights — must be at least 40,000 kilometers. That's the circumference of the Earth's equator.

Cyclists must travel at least 28,970 kilometers by bicycle.

After leaving Chicago in May, Wilcox rode to New York before flying to Europe. She then cycled from Portugal in the west to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in the east.

She flew to Perth, Australia, and cycled east to Brisbane before cycling across New Zealand and then flying to her home city of Anchorage.

She cycled down to Los Angeles, and then back across to Chicago on the famous Route 66.

Her wife, Rugile Kaladyte (pronounced "RUE-gil-ay KAL-ah-dee-tay"), is a filmmaker. She traveled with Wilcox, taking videos and posting updates on social media.

Wilcox is an experienced cyclist, but the first woman to cycle around the world had only learned to ride a bike a few days before her journey began!

In 1894, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a mother of three young children, left Boston and cycled around the world in 15 months — all to win a bet!




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US Woman Sets Record for Cycling Around the World

Japan Airlines (JAL) is offering free domestic flights in Japan for some passengers who book an international flight with the airline.

At the moment, the offer is available to passengers booking flights into Japan from a number of countries in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

For example, it means that a passenger booking a flight from Thailand to Tokyo will be able to book a free flight from the Japanese capital to any other destination in Japan that JAL flies to.

According to the JAL website, the airline has 133 domestic routes and 66 international routes.

It's good news for tourists who'd like to explore more of Japan, but it could also help take the pressure off some of the country's most popular sights.

Almost 18 million international visitors came to Japan in the first half of 2024, according to the country's national tourism organization.

That's a record number of arrivals, and it means some popular tourist areas — including the center of Tokyo and Mount Fuji — can get overcrowded.

JAL's offer was first made available in early September to tourists from Canada, Mexico and the US.

By the end of the month, people traveling from Australia and New Zealand were also eligible, along with those from Thailand, Singapore, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Taiwan.

JAL hopes to make it available to even more passengers in the future.

To take advantage of the offer, passengers must book their domestic flight at the same time that they make their international booking with JAL.

However, the airline said travelers from the US, Canada, Mexico and China will have to pay a little more — $100 for travelers from the US — if they plan to spend more than 24 hours in the first city they arrive in.

JAL Offers Free Domestic Flights for Some Tourists

Some animals have been known to use tools such as sticks, rocks and even bait to hunt for food. And humpback whales have been found using their own unique tool to hunt — bubbles.

A study published in Royal Society Open Science in August observed the hunting behaviors of more than 70 humpback whales in Stephens Passage in southeast Alaska, documenting how the whales blow bubbles to catch more prey.

Humpback whales hunt for krill — small, shrimp-like creatures that are around the same size as a paperclip, and which swim in swarms.

Whales can take in large amounts of krill in one mouthful. And to make this easier, humpback whales trap swarms of krill in "bubble nets" before feeding on them.

The whales create these "nets" by releasing air from their blowhole as they swim in circles below the surface of the water. The bubbles rise in a spiral pattern, which, from above the water's surface, looks more like artwork than a tool for hunting.

The rising bubbles create "curtains" of air around the krill that they are reluctant to swim through, although researchers aren't yet sure why this is. The whales then swim up through the "net" with an open mouth to eat the trapped krill.

The study data showed that as a whale swam in tighter circles and the "net" got smaller, the krill caught inside became, on average, more than seven times denser. This allowed the whales to catch more krill in a single mouthful.

A whale doesn't have to move very fast to create a net or eat trapped krill, allowing it to get more food without using any more energy.

While not many other animals create their own tools to catch prey like the humpback whale, there are examples of animals using other tools to hunt.

For example, chimpanzees have been observed using sticks to dig for bugs, while sea otters use rocks to open mussels. Certain species of heron have even been found to use food as bait to attract fish.

Humpback Whales Use Bubbles to Hunt

Being a picky eater can mean a number of different things. It may describe someone who doesn't like to try new foods, or someone who prefers plain meals. It can also refer to someone who eats quite a narrow range of foods.

It's quite common for children to be picky eaters. They may only like their pasta without sauce, or their bread cut in a certain shape.

Parents often feel they're to blame when their children are picky eaters. But according to a new study, picky eating is mostly caused by our genes.

Researchers in the UK looked at data from identical and non-identical twins who had been followed from birth since 2007.

Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share half, on average. Studying these twins allowed the researchers to compare the eating habits of people who were genetically the same and those who weren't, but still grew up in the same home together.

More than 4,800 twins were included in the study. Their parents completed questionnaires about how picky their children were aged 16 months, then again at the ages of 3, 5, 7 and 13.

Not all parents completed the questionnaires as their children got older, but from the results, the researchers found that the eating habits of identical twins were much more similar than those of non-identical twins.

They also found that genetic variation explained 60% of the differences in food pickiness at 16 months, and 74% between the ages of 3 and 13. Meanwhile, shared environment only explained 15% to 26% of these differences, and the environmental effect was strongest when children were younger.

However, the researchers added that environmental effects are still important: parents can still influence their children's eating habits by eating together as a family, and by offering a wide variety of different foods, for example.

Genes Biggest Cause of Picky Eating in Children

When you think about rainforests, you might think of somewhere with a tropical climate — somewhere like the Amazon or the Congo.

But in fact, a very large rainforest can be found in a country famous for its dreary weather: the UK.

The Eden Project, an attraction in southwest England, calls itself the world's largest indoor rainforest.

Sometimes referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the Eden Project was created in 2001 from an old clay pit. It's famous for its two enormous biomes, which are designed to look and feel like rainforests and tropical regions from all over the world.


Collage of the Eden Project's iconic biomes seen from the inside and outside.
The Rainforest Biome is about 16,000 square meters in size, and is full of plants found in tropical climates, like sugarcane, pineapples and bananas.

There are rare and unusual plants too, like the titan arum — a flower famous for its terrible smell that only blooms around once a year.

The Mediterranean Biome is a little smaller at 6,540 square meters, but has plants from the Mediterranean and regions with similar climates, such as California, South Africa and Australia.

The Eden Project is not just a place for people to look at plants, though — there is an environmental message behind the attraction, and it aims to teach visitors about the importance of looking after the environment.

As well as activities and workshops that teach visitors about the importance of living sustainably, the Eden Project even offers courses for a university degree!

And there's plenty of other things to see and do, too.

Throughout both biomes, visitors can find art and installations which focus on important topics like climate change.

And every year, the Eden Project hosts the Eden Sessions, a series of outdoor music concerts. Famous artists such as Amy Winehouse, Elton John and Oasis have performed at the Eden Sessions in the past.