The Top Science News

Plus: Pangea’s second coming won’t be chill; a little bit of science knowledge is a dangerous thing; and more. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Tuesday, your FREE member newsletter includes the week’s top science news, plus one full story, below, from The Porthole, our section for short sharp looks at science. Enjoy! DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week [How to Sharpen the Laws of Quantum Mechanics]( Why quantum physicists are challenging one of the field’s basic assumptions. [PNAS→]( [MDMA Reduces PTSD Symptoms in Diverse Populations]( The substance potentially enhances the ability of PTSD sufferers to benefit from psychotherapy by reducing sensations of fear, threat, and negative emotionality. [Nature Medicine→]( [Where New York City Is Rising and Sinking]( Manhattan overall is sinking 1.6 millimeters per year. [Science Advances→]( [Stars Create “Ghost Signals” in Exoplanet Atmospheres]( Why scientists need to be careful when assessing what elements float around within another planet’s atmosphere. [The Astrophysical Journal Letters→]( [People Tired of Being on Social Media Share Misinformation More Often]( The worst offenders are low cognitive-ability narcissists. [Scientific Reports→]( [NASA Scientists Open the Lid on the Canister Bearing the First Asteroid Sample Return]( Curating asteroid Bennu’s material has been slow-going because the mission returned a staggering amount. [NASA Blogs→]( [New Computer Analysis Hints Volcanism Killed the Dinosaurs, Not an Asteroid]( Paleontologists not involved in the analysis weigh its merits against the asteroid-impact theory. [Science News→]( [Why the “Mother of the Atomic Bomb” Never Won a Nobel Prize]( Newly translated letters suggest physicist Lise Meitner didn’t receive the prestigious prize on account of being Jewish. [The New York Times→]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [JOIN TODAY]( [An Evolutionary Case for the Existence of Free Will]( [Free Agents by Kevin J. Mitchell](offers a new framework for understanding how life evolved the power to choose and why it matters. "A bold, brilliant must-read."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review [BUY NOW]( From The Porthole—short sharp looks at science [ENVIRONMENT]( [Save This Stinking Flower!]( The world’s largest and smelliest flower teeters on extinction. BY LINA ZELDOVICH In the lush forests of Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines, dwells Rafflesia, one of the most mysterious and enigmatic flowers on Earth. Parasitic in nature, the plant itself has neither leaves nor roots, living most of its life hidden from view as a web of filaments inside the vines of another plant called the Tetrastigma. [After four to six years of germination](, the Rafflesia pops a bud—a brown cabbage-like sphere the size of a soccer ball—through its host’s tissue that may take up to nine months to bloom. Opening unexpectedly, almost always at night, the bud erupts into a stunning, five-lobed red blossom, over three feet in diameter—the biggest flower on the planet. Its scent, however, makes a mockery of its beauty: Rafflesias smell like rotten meat. Rafflesia has been known to scientists for about 200 years—and has been used in botanical medicine by the Indigenous populations of Southeast Asia for much longer. Yet, it is so rare and invisible most of the time that scientists know very little about its unusual biology. Rafflesias smell like rotten meat. “There are definitely more questions than answers,” says Chris Thorogood, deputy director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. Thorogood belongs to a niche group of scientists who call themselves Rafflesiologists. This self-selected group worries the curious flowers will disappear and take their botanical secrets with them—before they are even understood. Scientists have cataloged 42 Rafflesia species—with new species identified every year—but most of these are edging toward extinction as humans decimate their forest habitat to clear room for agriculture. Thorogood and his team recently [published a paper]( calling for the preservation of the species. Among other things, they suggest making the flower “an icon” for plant conservation in the Asian tropics. (It already likely inspired one of the more popular Pokémon characters, Vileplume, which scatters toxic pollen that can trigger allergy attacks.) [Like the story? Join Nautilus today]( What we do know about Rafflesia is both majestic and macabre. Rafflesia evolved its stink to attract different types of pollinating insects—not bees or wasps, who favor fragrant blooms, but flies, which prefer foul smells. “If you want to attract a fly rather than a bee, you don’t want to smell nice,” says Thorogood. Flies prefer decomposing flesh, as that’s where they lay their eggs. With its deep red hues, even the appearance of Rafflesia’s massive flower mimics, to some extent, the flesh of a dead animal. In fact, there’s nothing there for the larvae to eat. “They may sometimes lay their eggs on the flower, and then their offspring will just perish,” Thorogood explains. It’s a bit of a dead end, as it were. STINK MASTER: Chris Thorogood is a self-proclaimed Rafflesiologist, a scientist dedicated to the study and conservation of the world’s stinkiest flower. He poses here with a Rafflesia arnoldii. Photo courtesy of Chris Thorogood. But the Rafflesiologists are still trying to figure out how the pollination process works. Rafflesia plants are either male or female, and the male ones produce a thick, sticky sludge of yellow pollen. “It looks like butter that has been left out of the fridge, when it gets really soft,” says Thorogood. As flies enter the male flowers hunting for a place to lay their eggs, the pollen rubs onto their bodies. But what happens after that is an open question: One would think the flies would then carry it to a female plant and pollinate it. But because the blooms are so rare, it’s unlikely that any flies will find one nearby, Thorogood says. The plant may produce seeds, but scientists are still debating how they disperse. Some insist that ants help spread the seeds around in the jungle. Others believe that small forest animals may swallow the seeds—and poop them out. “We don’t have a united account of how the seeds are distributed,” Thorogood admits. So far, cultivation of the plant has proven difficult. In their study, Thorogood and colleagues outline a few avenues to saving the massive stinkers—from propagating Rafflesia outside their native places to designating habitat protections to raising awareness through ecotourism, as some local conservation groups have done. “If people don’t have an awareness or care, [the species] won’t win this battle,” Thorogood says. His team hopes that the growing conservation efforts to save the world’s biggest stinker of a flower will bear fruit. Lina Zeldovich grew up in a family of Russian scientists, listening to bedtime stories about volcanoes, black holes, and intrepid explorers. She has written for The New York Times, Scientific American, Reader’s Digest, and Audubon Magazine, among other publications, and won four awards for covering the science of poop. Her book, The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth, was published in 2021 by Chicago University Press. You can find her at [LinaZeldovich.com]( and [@LinaZeldovich](. Lead photo by Chris Thorogood More from The Porthole: • [Pangea’s second coming won’t be chill]( • [A little bit of science knowledge is a dangerous thing]( Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher [Back to school discount image]( ON THE COVER [Weaving Together Fantasy and Reality]( “There wasn't much that didn't capture my imagination! The setting is in the Tibetan Himalayas, and the story is about a caterpillar-zombifying fungus (which is a cousin to the fungi that was responsible for the zombies in HBO's The Last of Us). The article itself is fascinating and explores a scientific mystery, eventually unearthing new information about this fungus.” This is why Nautilus’ cover artist, Jennifer Bruce, was immediately drawn to Issue 51’s feature article, [“The Last of the Fungus.”]( An award-winning artist whose intricate illustrations have been featured on the covers of a plethora of fantasy novels, Bruce certainly judges a book by its cover. “I tend to pick up books based on whether or not the cover intrigues me. I think we all do that innately—the cover and title are the first representation of a story that a potential reader sees.” You can read more about Jennifer Bruce’s thoughts on our latest cover story, the “tortured artist” trope, and what scientists and artists can learn from one another in Nautilus. [Read Jennifer Bruce's Full Interview]( Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. 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