Marla Mackoul

Joined: Sep 27, 2023

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The Rarest Breed of Goldfish—Thought to Be an Urban Legend—May Have Been Rediscovered in the Wild

Illustration of William Shakespeare Reciting Hamlet to His Family

William Shakespeare’s Sister, Joan, Emerges in Long-Lost Writings

The Nude Statue That Shocked Victorian England

Average Life Expectancies Have More Than Doubled Over the Past 70 Years—Here's Why

In 1900, the global average life expectancy was around 32 years old. Today, it's 71. How did this happen?

Astronaut Kellie Gerardi conducts research aboard the Virgin Galactic spacecraft.

“Humanity’s Next Giant Leap”: Citizen Astronaut Kellie Gerardi Envisions the Future of Spaceflight

Bioastronautics researcher Kellie Gerardi envisions a future when space is open to all.

Why Is the Space Needle Shaped Like That?

Seattle’s iconic Space Needle debuted at the 1962 World’s Fair—and was inspired by America's Space Race with the Soviet Union.

St. Nicholas and the dastardly Père Fouettard.

Move Over, Krampus: France’s Père Fouettard Is St. Nick’s Sidekick—and Possibly a Brutal Murderer

Père Fouettard, or “Father Whipper,” is a butcher whose favorite pastime is eating children. And hanging out with St. Nicholas.

Meet Leatrice Eiseman: The Woman Who Chooses Pantone’s Color of the Year

The Pantone Color Institute’s global team of experts conducts color psychology research and discusses potential Color of the Year options year-round.

The ATOMIK grain spirit features a wild boar on its label, which the distillers say is a symbol of nature’s resilience.

From Disaster to Distillery: A New (Non-Radioactive) Vodka is Being Made in Chernobyl

Sales of the ATOMIK vodka-like spirit support Ukraine’s recovery from the world’s worst nuclear disaster and from the current war.

A Los Angeles Book Club Has Spent 28 Years Reading James Joyce’s ’Finnegans Wake’ and Still Doesn’t Understand It

James Joyce once famously declared, “The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.“ After 28 years, members of a Venice, California-based book club have come pretty close.

T-Glottalization: The Reason Some People Drop Their ‘T’s When Speaking

Dropping that ‘t’ sound is an example of what linguists call glottalization, or replacing a sound with a pause in the vocal cords.

Why Is the First Episode of a TV Show Called a ‘Pilot’?

Getting a concept onto the big screen is a difficult process, and the pilot episode is what can make—or, more often, break—a series. By why is it called that?

Hawaii is home to a number of lava tubes.

What Is a Lava Tube, and Where Can I Find One?

Caves and volcanoes don’t often go hand-in-hand in our imaginations, but the second most common type of cave in the world is made from the power of volcanoes.

The cover of Emily Wilson’s translation of ‘The Iliad.’

A New Translation of ’The Iliad’ Is Bringing a Truer Ancient Greece to Modern Readers

This all-new translation of the Homer epic is six years in the making.

Dollar Baby: Why Stephen King Sells the Rights to His Work to Up-and-Coming Filmmakers for Just $1

The Dollar Baby contract is Stephen King’s way of helping film students adapt his stories without financial barriers.