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The 2016 Spelling Bee co-champions Nihar Janga, 11, of Austin, Texas, and Jairam Hathwar, 13, of Corning, New York.

The National Spelling Bee Adjusts Its Rules To Prevent Ties

Top spellers will be required to take a written test on the final evening of the competition

Kaboom.

Your Alaskan Cruise Is Possible Because Canada Blew Up an Underwater Mountain

People predicted tsunamis and an earthquake, but nothing particularly bad happened

Even the strongest hands might get tired wearing a 59.6-carat pink diamond.

Trending Today

This $71.2 Million Diamond Just Set a New World Record

The flawless stone has a new owner—and a new name

SpaceX launches it's first re-used Falcon 9 rocket

Cool Finds

Watch SpaceX’s Recycled Rocket Stick Its Landing

The reused Falcon 9 booster rocket may usher in an era of cheaper and more frequent trips into space

Europe’s Only Known Cavefish Discovered in Germany

Genetic analyses suggest that the cave loach speedily adapted to its lightless habitat

Found: One of the Oldest North American Settlements

The discovery of the 14,000-year-old village in Canada lends credence to the theory that humans arrived in North America from the coast

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A new vault will protect the world's books, archives and documents on long-lasting film

Cool Finds

A Second Doomsday Vault—This One to to Preserve Data—Is Opening in Svalbard

Known as the Arctic World Archive, it will store copies of books, archives and documents on special film

If bed is your calling, consider volunteering for an exhaustive—and exhausting—French study.

France Wants You to Lie on Your Back for 60 Days in the Name of Space Research

But only if you’re a man

Cool Finds

Now Everyone Can Track Yosemite’s Bears Online

The park is displaying delayed GPS data on a new website to stop curious humans from scouting out the creatures in real time

The tick discovered preserved in amber

New Research

30-Million-Year-Old Tick Full of Monkey Blood Found in Ancient Amber

Scientists think the tick was plucked from a primate before being dropped in a puddle of sticky tree resin

Susannah Madora Salter was hanging up laundry when she heard her name was on the mayoral ballot.

130 Years Ago, Men Against Women’s Suffrage Put Susanna Salter’s Name on the Ballot

Boy, were they sorry.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett gives a speech in Hyde Park in 1913.

London’s Parliament Square Will Get Its First Statue of a Woman

Suffragist leader Millicent Garrett Fawcett will join the ranks of 11 statesmen who have been honored with monuments there

Rooster sauce has a new home: on store shelves in Vietnam.

Trending Today

Sriracha Sauce Is Finally Available in Vietnam

What happens when a cult staple heads to another country?

Your vending machine is judging you.

New Research

Brief Vending Machine Delay Helps People Make Better Snack Choices

When a vending machine withheld junky snacks for 25 seconds, people were slightly more likely to choose a healthier option

New Research

Proposed Test Heats Up the Debate on Solar Geoengineering

Harvard scientists are moving ahead with plans to investigate using particles to reflect some of the sun’s radiation

Mother and calm manatee, showing scrapes from a boat strike

Trending Today

Manatees Move From Endangered to Threatened

But conservationists say the species still faces significant threats

Lesson learned: Don't cross a fangblenny.

New Research

These Tropical Fish Have Opioids in Their Fangs

The point isn’t to relieve pain—it’s to kill

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape’s moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

The Sayler Park tornado which struck the Cincinnati area as part of the "Super Outbreak" was a category F5 storm on the Fujita scale, the highest possible rating on the scale.

How 148 Tornadoes in One Day in 1974 Changed Emergency Preparedness

The “super outbreak” flattened towns and killed and injured thousands, all with little warning and in the space of 24 hours

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