Amelia Bedelia

US Cyclist Lael Wilcox Claimed The Record For Fastest Woman To Circumnavigate The Globe By Bike In ~108 Days, Pending Guinness Verification. She Cycled 29,169 Km Across 21 Countries & 4 Continents, Starting And Ending In Chicago, Beating Scotland’s Jenny Graham’s 2018 Record Of ~124 Days. Indian Cyclist Vedangi Kulkarni Is Also Attempting The Record.

A Groundbreaking Blood Test Analyzing CRP–A Liver Protein, Lipoprotein(A), And Cholesterol In 30K US Women Reveals Heart Health Risks 30-Yrs In Advance. This “Three-Pronged” Approach, Recommended For Those In Their 30s Or 40s, Showed That High Levels In All 3 Markers Triple Heart Disease Risk, But Early Detection Enables Prevention.

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The South American Lungfish, Lepidosiren Paradoxa, Has The Largest Animal Genome At 30x A Human’s. A Living Fossil & Closest Relative To Early Land Vertebrates, It Breaths Air Through Lung-Like Organs.Its Genome Offers Insights Into Tetrapod Evolution. A Plant, Tmesipteris Oblanceolata, Holds The Largest Genome Overall At 50x A Human’s.

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Archaeologists Have Discovered The World’s Oldest Calendar At Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, Dating Back 12kyrs. The Site Features 365 “V” Symbols On A Pillar, Representing A 12-Month Lunar Calendar With 11 Extra Days. The Carvings May Depict A Comet Strike 13kyrs Ago That Influenced Early Agriculture, Religion, And Possibly Led To Writing.

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Katie Ledecky Won Her 9th Gold And 14th Olympic Medal In The 800m Freestyle, Tying Gymnast Larisa Latynina For Most Golds By A Female Swimmer And American Female Athlete. She Also Became The Most Decorated Female Swimmer With Her 13th Medal, A Silver In The 4×200 Freestyle Relay. In Paris, She Earned 2 Golds, A Silver, And A Bronze, Aiming For LA 2028.

The 40m Stampfli 24 Express, The World’s Longest Rowing Boat, Joined The Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay On July 21 On The River Marne. Starting In Greece, The Relay Crossed France And Ended In Paris, Where The July 26 Opening Ceremony Began As A 6km Floating Parade On The Seine, Instead Of In The Stadium, For The First Time In The Olympics.

In A World-First, Astronomers Have Witnessed A Supermassive Black Hole “Waking Up” And Brightening In Real-Time. Located 360 Million Light-Years Away In Galaxy SDSS1335+0728, The Black Hole Has Shown Increased Luminosity Since 2019, But Its Activation Cause Remains Unknown. Similar Activation Could Occur With Sagittarius A* In Our Galaxy.

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Scientists Uncovered A 1,400-Year-Old Seagrass Clone, Zostera Marina (Eelgrass), In The Baltic Sea, Making It The World’s Oldest Known Marine Plant. Using A Genetic Clock Calibrated With A 17-Yr-Old Seagrass Clone, The Team Determined The Age By Comparing Genetic Variations. This Method May Reveal Older Organisms In Other Seagrass Species.

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Researchers Have Completed An Autopsy On The First Complete Adult Wolf From The Late Pleistocene (44,000-Year-Old), Discovered In The Siberian Permafrost In 2021 By A River In Yakutia. The Autopsy Aims To Reveal The Wolf’s Diet, Ancient Viruses, And Microbiota, Aiding The Understanding Of Life And Microbial Communities During The Ice Age.

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Scientists In South Africa Have Discovered The World’s Oldest Active Termite Mounds, Over 34 Kyrs Old, Along The Buffels River In Namaqualand. These Mounds, Called “Heuweltjies,” House Southern Harvester Termites (Microhodotermes Viator). Their Foraging Promotes Carbon Sequestration By Forming Calcium Carbonate, Locking Carbon Deep In The Soil.

Astronomers Discovered WASP-193b, An Exoplanet 50% Larger Than Jupiter But Only 14% Of Its Mass, Making It The 2nd Lightest Known Planet After Kepler 51d. Located 1,200 LY Away, The “Puffy Jupiter” Is Likely Comprised Mainly Hydrogen & Helium, And Its Extended Atmosphere Is Ideal For Studying Its Planetary Formation With Tools Like JWST.

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The Closest Transiting, Temperate, And Potentially Habitable Earth-Size Exoplanet, Gliese 12b, Has Been Discovered. It’s 40 LY Away In Pisces, Orbits A Red Dwarf In 12.8 Days, And Has A Surface Temperature Of 107°f. Found By NASA’s TESS, Its Atmosphere Will Be Analyzed By The James Webb Telescope, But Human Visitation Is Impractical.

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Scientists In China, For The First Time In The World, Cured A 59-Year-Old Man’s Type 2 Diabetes Using His Stem Cells, Making Him Insulin-Independent. This Is The First Successful Stem Cell-Derived Islet Transplantation. The Patient, Diabetic For 25 Years And Insulin-Dependent After A 2017 Kidney Transplant, Received The Treatment In 2021.

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Fossilized Bones Found In Somerset, England, In 2020, Identified As Part Of A Giant Ichthyosaur From 202 Myrs Ago, And Linked To An 8-Year Prior Find Of A 3 Ft Long Bone, Led To The Identification Of A New Species Of Ichthyosaur, Ichthyotitan Severnensis, Said To Be The Largest Marine Reptile Ever Found. The New Species Was ~82 Ft Long.

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Astronomers Observed, For The First Time, The ‘Glory Effect’ (GE) On An Exoplanet, WASP-76b, Similar To Earth’s & Venus‘s. It Features Concentric, Colorful Rings Of Light Caused By Light Reflecting Off Clouds Made Of A Uniform Substance. Extreme Conditions—Scorching Dayside, Nightside Iron Rain—Permit GE, Offering Insights Into Alien Atm.

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A Wild Animal, An Orangutan In Indonesia, Was Observed For The First Time Applying A Potent Medicinal Plant Directly To A Wound And Then Covering It With The Chewed Plant, Like A Bandage In A Likely Form Of Self-Medication. Other Primates Have Also Been Known To Use Plants For Healing, Which Raises Questions About The Evolution Of Medicine.

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French Bakers In Paris Broke A Guinness World Record On 5/5/24, Baking A 140.53-Meters-Long Baguette, Surpassing Italy’s 132.62 M Record Set 5 Years Ago. The Record-Breaking Bread, Baked During An Event Organized For The French Confederation Of Bakers And Pastry Chef, Was Shared With The Public, And The Rest Will Be Given To The Homeless.

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Scientists Discovered A Huge Water Reservoir, 3x Earth’s Oceans, 700 Km Deep Within The Mantle In The Rock Ringwoodite. This Find Challenges Theories On Earth’s Water Origin, Suggesting Possibly Internal Rather Than From Comets. Seismic Data Reveals This Underground Ocean, Potentially Reshaping Our Understanding Of The Planet’s Water Cycle.

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In 2024, Brood XIX (13-Year–Largest Periodical Cicada Brood) And Brood XIII (17-Year) Cicadas Will Co-Emerge Across 17 US States, In A Rare Event Seen Every 221 Years. The Adult Cicada Will Mate, Lay Eggs, Then Die, While The Nymphs Will Burrow Into The Ground For The Next Cycle. There Are 3,000 To 5,000 Species Of Cicadas Around The World.

A Researcher, In Queensland, Australia, Has Discovered A Potentially World’s Hairiest Beetle, Excastra Albopilosa, In Dec., 2021. With Long Fluffy White Hairs, It’s Believed To Mimic Fungus-Infected Insects, A Possible Deterrent To Predators. This cm-Long Longhorn Beetle Is Said To Be Of A New Genus, And Only One Specimen Has Been Found.

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