For her work covering the sex abuse scandal at Penn State, Sara Ganim has earned herself — and her staff — a Pulitzer Prize. And at the age of 24, she is the youngest recipient this year and one of the award’s youngest recipients ever. Considering how this story, which she first started covering when she was fresh out of college, blew up all over the world, it’s a signal of a pretty huge career ahead for the young reporter.

Ok, so little Rose’s song may require subtitles both for her gibberish and the real lyrics but she still one-ups me when it come to singing Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements.” The video is about a year old now but her dad says she’s still interested in the periodic table (mostly because of the song) and writes, “She likes the video of Daniel Radcliffe singing it, and the one where two older girls sing a Japanese version.”

(via io9)

Throughout his life, Charles Darwin endured a religious struggle as he uncovered more and more about evolution in his travels and studies. As he put together his writings on evolution, he brought in his family to help him edit his work, including his daughter Henrietta Darwin (also known as Etty to the family). One of the most famous and controversial pieces of her father’s that she worked on was The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. That was Darwin’s follow-up to The Origin of the Species, and when he doubled down on his theories of evolution as it applied to humans. But Henrietta’s opinions on these matters were never really detailed, and all some people really knew of her was an unflattering portrayal in her niece’s memoir. But now, we’re finding that Henrietta went through similar struggles as her father did, and it’s painting a whole new picture of one of Darwin’s closest confidants.

Rita Levi-Montalcini, who will turn 103 on April 22, is the longest-living women to have won the Nobel Prize (for Physiology or Medicine) for her discovery of nerve growth factor, or NGF, a protein crucial for the growth, maintenance, and survival of neurons. She now continues to work every day as a Senator for Life in Italy. The fact that Levi-Montalcini discovered NGF (along with Stanley Cohen) is making people wonder: Has this woman unlocked one of the secrets to longevity? Exhibit A: She’s about to turn 103 and still goes to work every day.

I’d say I’m sick of hearing about teenagers doing more than I’ll ever accomplish in my entire life but I can’t do it, honestly. These kids are amazing. The latest? Seventeen-year-old Marian Bechtel. She’s a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search thanks to a low-cost device she created that can detect land mines using sound waves. Yup, like I said, amazing. 

At the age of six, Lori Anne Madison just became the youngest contestant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The home-schooled student from Woodbridge, Virginia out-spelled 21 elementary and middle school students and emerged victorious by spelling the word “vaquero,” a Spanish word for “cowboy” — while dressed like a bee. Yeehaw! It’s on to nationals!

Forbes Magazine has released their yearly list of the World’s Billionaires, over 1000 individuals who have done extremely well for themselves (putting it mildly). New to the list this year is Spanx founder Sara Blakely. The woman who started her bodyshaper business with just $5,000 in savings now ranks up there with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. And by the look of the Academy Awards this year, something tells me she’s got nowhere to go but up. 

A very delightful history geek named Paul Reda came across the mysterious case of a woman named Cora Strayer. Strayer lived on the South Side of Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, at which time she seemed to be running a private detective agency. That is, she was the detective. He came across an ad for her agency on a Vintage Ads Live Journal account and started to piece together Strayer’s career little by little. What he came up with was a timeline that involved nothing less than intrigue, a secret abortion, and a pretty fair amount of alcohol. Seriously, someone needs to turn Cora Strayer’s story into a screenplay.

Centenarian Kathleen Kit Connell is unlike most retirees who spend their free time free time golfing or crocheting. No, instead, Connell spends two hours a day playing her Nintendo DS to keep her mind sharp. According to the video’s description, “The grandmother-of-one, who still lives independently, said she has used the Nintendo DS Lite, so much she even wore out her first console and had to replace the computer.” Watch her go. Just don’t ask her to play after 10 p.m.

(via Buzzfeed)

NBC may be losing one of its brightest comedy stars — and it looks like it’s their own darn fault, too! Mindy Kaling, author and star of The Office, has been shopping around a script for a sitcom pilot about a “Bridget Jones-type doctor.” And NBC wasn’t interested. (Really? Um, okay then!) However, Fox thought it would be a good idea to hop on the Kaling train — probably sensing the success of other comedies featuring quirky female characters, like The New Girl with Zooey Deschanel — and picked up the pilot. Should it go to series, NBC will have to wave goodbye to Kelly Kapoor. Their loss!