Do you like to ride a bicycle? Have you ever gone on a bike trip? Mark Beaumont, from Scotland, went on an amazing bike journey. He biked around the world and he did it in less than 80 days. Beaumont's world record bike trip took 79 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes and covered a whopping 18,032 miles.(completed 9/18) Back in 2008, Beaumont traveled the world in 194 days but other cyclists have since broken his record. The current record before this week was 123 days. It was necessary for Beaumont to travel approximately 240 miles each on his bicycle. That left only about five hours each night for a snooze and to get needed rest. Otherwise, he pedaled his bicycle for over 16 hours each day! He began his record bike trip in Paris, France,traveled across Europe, through Russia and to Mongolia and China. He then took an airplane to Australia and biked across the continent. He went over to New Zealand and then took another airplane across the Pacific Ocean. He arrive in Anchorage, Alaska and pedaled through Canada. Another plane ride took Beaumont to Portugal where he continued biking on through Spain and France where he ended once again in Paris, France. Along the journey, biking through 16 countries, Beaumont suffered from lots of calluses. He broke a filling when he had a crash in Russia and suffered sub-zero temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere where it is winter. He also came down with a bad cold during the trip but nothing stopped Beaumont from achieving his goal. Like the character, Phileas Fogg, from the Jules Verne book, Around the World in 80 Days, Beaumont said, "I’ll always be the first who did it(in under 80 days). No one remembers who was second up Everest."

Photograph from IBT.com

Two very rare giraffes were captured on video. They are completely white. The mother and baby calf were spotted by rangers in the country of Kenya, in the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservacy. Not albino, the giraffe have a condition called leucism,which means they have no pigment in their skin cells. This causes the white skin. It is only the third time, such white giraffes have every been spotted.

Photograph from Dailymail.co.uk

There is milk chocolate, dark chocolate and even white chocolate. Now, Swiss scientists have come up with another type of chocolate, Ruby.Made from ruby cocoa beans found in the Ivory Coast, Brazil and Ecuador, the chocolate is actually pink without any additives and should be on the market in the next several months. As to the taste, those that have sampled ruby chocolate say it has a berry flavor. Would you try this new chocolate?

Photograph from mashable.com

Photograph from bbc.co.uk

A cuneiform tablet, called Plimpton 322,dating back about 3700 years, was discovered in the 1900s. Cuneiform was the wedge-shaped writing of the ancient people of Mesopotamia(present day area of Iraq). Just recently, the tablet has been decoded after being held in a collection of artifacts at Columbia University for over 100 years. The discovery of the meaning of the tablet is very interesting. Seems that Hipparchus of Nicaea,(a Greek astronomer) may not have been the first to develop the study of triangles(called trigonometry). The ancient people of Mesopotamia(called the Babylonians), were writing about trigonometry over 1000 years earlier! It took two years of studying the tablet to discovery the cuneiform seems to be a trigonometry table, the world's oldest every discovered. The discovery doesn't remove Hipparchus from his contributions to mathematics as the "father of trigonometry".

Photograph from sci-news.com

There are many things to consider with a trip to Mars,estimated at taking about 400-450 days.The issue of water is of great concern. Storing enough drinking water would be impossible for such a long trek into space. Just where can additional drinking water be found? Scientists are looking at the astronauts themselves, specifically, their urine. A recycling system has been developed that uses urine and turns it into drinking water. Actually, a system was used at the ISS beginning in 2008. Astronauts, who have sampled the recycled urine water, say it actually takes just fine. A better system is being developed to be used for the space mission to Mars that in addition to creating drinking water would also produce energy needed for such a long flight. Did you know that you produce 50% more water each day than you actually drink? Additional fluid comes from the food we each that is turned into water. In addition to drinking water, scientists are also hoping to use 3D printers to create plastic parts and tools from the yeast in astronauts' urine!