• A Boeing 747 is one of the most popular exhibits at the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta.
• This particular plane was the first Boeing 747-400 ever made and entered service in 1989.
• The jet flew for Delta until 2015 and became a museum exhibit in 2017.

The Boeing 747 is one of the most famous planes in aviation history. But newer, more efficient twin-engine airliners have relegated the Queen of the Skies to retirement or to flying cargo.

With no US airlines operating scheduled passenger service using a 747, the easiest way for many people to see a jumbo jet in person is to visit The 747 Experience at the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta.

I recently had the chance to tour the freshly renovated Delta Flight Museum and its Boeing 747.

The 747 looms large over the entrance gate to Delta's Flight Museum.

The museum is housed in a pair of historic hangars at Delta Air Lines headquarters on the northern edge of Atlanta's airport.

Despite its prominent position at the museum, the 747 was actually a minor player in Delta's century-long history.

The carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 747-100 in 1970 but soon realized that a smaller widebody like the Lockheed L-1011 would better suit its needs. As a result, Delta had returned all five of its 747-100s back to Boeing by 1977.

Delta would not operate the 747 again until 2008.

The 747 preserved at the museum, N661US, known within Delta as Ship 6301, is an important piece of aviation history.

Despite being Boeing's 696th jumbo jet, it was the first upgraded 747-400 to be built. The -400 was a major step forward for the 747 as it not only increased range and performance but also introduced modern technology like digital instrument displays and more powerful flight computers, eliminating the need for a flight engineer.

The -400 dominated the skies during the 90s and early 2000s, accounting for roughly half of the more than 1,500 747s produced during its five-decade-long run.

Ship 6301 served as the prototype for the 747-400 and made its first flight on April 29, 1988.

Pratt & Whitney then used the aircraft as a test bed for its PW4000 series engines, which would power all of Delta's 747-400s.

The plane entered commercial service with Northwest Airlines in December 1989.

Ship 6301 joined the Delta fleet in 2008 following its merger with Northwest. The jet logged more than 61 million miles before retiring from service in September 2015.

Delta's entire 747 fleet was retired by the end of 2017.

Following its retirement, Delta turned the jumbo jet into a permanent fixture at its headquarters.

The 747 Experience opened in March of 2017 as a museum exhibit and event space.

From the museum parking lot, you approach the rear of the aircraft.

The entrance to the 747 Experience is at the front of the aircraft, right past its port wing.

Here are a couple of its Pratt & Whitney engines.

Each one of its four PW4056 turbofan engines produces 57,000 lbs of thrust, helping a full-loaded 747-400 fly nearly 7,000 miles.

A short elevator ride takes up to the boarding door.

Part of the plane's cabin remains intact, while other parts have had its walls and ceiling removed.

Take a left turn toward the front of the plane and you'll find seats rows of economy class seats.

When it was in service, the plane was configured to carry 376 passengers, of whom 328 were in its Economy and Economy Comfort cabins.

At the nose of the aircraft is its first-class cabin.

These Zodiac Aerospace flatbed seats are a predecessor to today's Thompson Vantage XL DeltaOne suites.

The 747's front galley has been preserved as well.

The aircraft's galleys, the economy cabin, and the upper deck have been removed.

Walk up the stairs to reach the 747's iconic upper deck.

The 747-400 has a stretched upper deck with greater seating capacity than the original 747-100/200 series.

While the upper deck of Delta's original 747s had luxury lounges, there are just more DeltaOne seats.

The aircraft operated with a total of 48 DeltaOne seats onboard across two decks.

At the front of the upper deck is the 747's cockpit.

This is the first version of the 747 to operate with a two-person crew without a flight engineer.

Right behind the cockpit is the pilot crew rest bunks.

Due to the long trans-oceanic routes the aircraft flew, it usually operated with at least one relief pilot who took over flying duties when one of the main crew rested.

There's a glass partition at the back of the upper deck showing the main deck below.

The partition also reveals the cables that physically connect the pilot's yoke to the plane's control surfaces.

The main economy class cabin has been stripped bare to reveal the inner workings of the aircraft.

The walls are covered by displays on the aircraft's history.

Parts of the floor have been replaced by glass panels.

This section gives museumgoers a view of the jet's air conditioning system.

Further back, there is another glass floor section showing the aircraft's cargo compartment.

The 747 was designed to be able to carry cargo as well as it does passengers. In fact, some airlines have even ordered 747 Combi models that haul cargo on the main deck behind the passenger compartment.

At the very of the cabin is the plane's exposed pressure dome.

The dome is the end cap that helps keep the cabin pressurized.

Next to the pressure dome is the entrance to the stairs that lead to the plane's flight attendant crew rest.

The crew rest compartment is comprised of a series of bunks immediately above the aft passenger cabin.

For those looking for some fresh air, there is an observation platform over the starboard wing.

Access to the 747 Experience is included in the general admission ticket to the museum.

• More people under the age of 50 are developing colon cancer.
• James Kinross, a colon cancer surgeon, said changes to the microbes in our gut could be a contributing factor.
• Following a vegetarian diet is one of the ways Kinross tries to reduce his risk of colon cancer.

Rates of colon cancer in people under the age of 50 are rising. James Kinross, a GI surgeon who researches how the gut microbiome affects our risk of the disease, believes "an internal climate crisis" among people in Western countries could be partly to blame.

But "the gift of the gut microbiome is that you can change it," said Kinross, referring to the trillions of microbes that populate our digestive system, and which research suggests have a wide-ranging affect on our health. "It is an ecosystem that you can adapt," the researcher at Imperial College London told Business Insider.

To lower his own risk of developing colon cancer, the second deadliest form of cancer disease in the US, Kinross follows dietary principles including eating a vegetarian diet. However, as BI has previously reported, a person's diet is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to colon cancer risk.

Environmental factors such as ultra-processed foods, the use of antibiotics, which kill gut bacteria, microplastics, and limited exposure to nature, are thought to have made our gut microbiomes less diverse, he said. That means it's less healthy and resilient.

He gave the example of a child who is born by C-section, which means missing out on microbes that would have been passed on via the birth canal, to a mom whose gut microbiome is depleted by antibiotics, and fed a diet of ultra-processed foods, he said.

"You're seeing a generational loss in our internal ecology, which is being hammered with a series of environmental hits that it simply cannot adapt to," Kinross said.

The consequence is "a very unhappy microbiome," which produces harmful molecules and toxins that affect colon cancer risk, he said.

Kinross shared how he eats to lower his risk of colon cancer.

Eat 30 grams of fiber a day

"What I really want in my gut is diversity," Kinross said, "and the way you get that is by having a really good diverse diet which is really high in fiber."

Fiber is found in plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains, and studies suggest that a diverse gut microbiome is linked to a range of health benefits, such as a strong immune system.

Kinross aims to eat 30 grams of dietary fiber a day, as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. He tries to "eat the rainbow," ensuring that his plate is filled with plant foods of lots of different color and, therefore, nutrients.

Follow a vegetarian diet

Research has found a strong link between eating processed and red meats and colon cancer risk, so Kinross tries to follow a vegetarian diet as much as possible.

One 2020 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology looked at data from around 500,000 people over a seven-year period to assess whether eating meat affected their cancer risk. It found that those who ate 79 grams of red or processed meat, or the equivalent of three slices of deli meat per day on average, had a 32% higher risk of colon cancer compared to those who ate less than 11 grams.

In 2015, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research agency of the World Health Organization, classified processed meat as a "definite" cause of cancer, and red meat as a "probable" cause.

"I don't necessarily believe that we all have to be vegetarian, but I think meat consumption is a big part of our problem," he said, referring to rising colon cancer cases.

Eat fermented foods daily

Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kefir, and kombucha, contain probiotics, the "good" bacteria that live in the gut.

Kinross eats a serving of them daily, as research suggests they can improve the diversity of the gut microbiome. A 2021 study by Stanford University found that people who ate a diet high in fermented foods for 10 weeks had even more diverse microbiomes than those who ate a high-fiber diet.

His go-to's are sourdough bread and kimchi, a Korean fermented cabbage dish.

"My daughter's completely obsessed by kimchi. She makes loads of it. So we've always got a big bucket of it in our house," he said.

"They've got to be part of your regular food consumption, otherwise, the microbes just don't culture and graft into your gut," he said.

• I wanted to surprise my kids with a big teddy bear like my grandmother did when I was a kid.
• I decided to get them a massive teddy from Costco.
• It was delivered in a giant box, and the bear turned out to be bigger than I expected.

When I was 7 years old, my grandmother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I wanted a giant teddy bear, and so she set out to find one that would qualify as "giant."

Much to my parents' disappointment, she found a 5-foot bear. When she brought it home, sitting in the passenger seat of the car, I was thrilled. I kept that bear until I was out of college, when I donated it to an orphanage in my native Argentina.

I wanted to provide the same experience to my kids for their birthday this year, so I set out to find the biggest teddy bear I could. I might have overdone it, despite how much my kids love it.

I found exactly what I wanted

I asked on Threads where I could buy a very large teddy bear from a reliable seller. More than one person told me to look at Costco. I found the teddy bear I wanted almost immediately. It would deliver just in time for my kids' birthday.

I hit purchase and paid $300 without reading the specs. I was feeling accomplished until I got an email from Costco saying that because of the size of the box, the teddy could only be delivered to our driveway.

It's truly gigantic

I went back to the listing to check what I had bought, and that's when I realized how big this surprise was going to be — for all of us. Had I known, and had there been a smaller option, I would've gone for that.

The stuffed bear weighs almost 49 pounds and is 7 feet 9 inches, which is significantly taller than I am at 5 feet 6 inches. I told my husband about my mistake and he laughed, used to my antics.

When the delivery truck arrived, the driver told us he needed a dolly to move the box to our front steps. I wasn't impressed with the size of the box initially. It was slightly shorter than me and I worried my surprise wasn't going to be as big as I wanted it to be.

When we opened the box, the teddy bear unfolded and revealed its size: truly gigantic.

My kids love it

My three kids squealed in excitement when they saw their new friend, who they appropriately named Mr. Beary. They immediately climbed on top of him. Because the bear so big, it's basically like climbing a mountain for their tiny bodies.

I had to ask my husband to carry Mr. Beary up since it was impossible for me to even try. We debated where to put him. At first, we went to my kids' bedroom, but there was nowhere we could put him. The ceilings of certain rooms in our house slant, leaving minimal vertical space. We moved him to our playroom where there was enough room for him to sit up, but he now takes up half the room.

My kids have played nonstop with their giant bear since it arrived. In the end, I thought the price was a steal for how large, soft, and well-made the bear is. And if my kids ever get tired of playing with it, the bear is a perfect little couch for one of them to watch TV on.