Rachel Ehrenberg

1 week ago | nacion.com | Rachel Ehrenberg

A finales del invierno, en las pantanosas tierras bajas del noreste de Estados Unidos, se percibe un olor a carne podrida. La improbable fuente de ese olor son flores —cosas puntiagudas de color granate, del tamaño de un puño, que sobresalen del suelo aún helado—. Son las flores de la col de mofeta (Symplocarpus foetidus). Las moscas y otros polinizadores se sienten atraídos por su olor pútrido, así como por el calor de las flores.

1 month ago | knowablemagazine.org | Rachel Ehrenberg

In late winter, in the swampy lowlands of the northeastern United States, you might catch a whiff of rotting flesh. The unlikely source is flowers — maroon pointy things, the size of fists, that protrude from the still-frozen ground like grotesque harbingers of spring. These are the flowers of the Eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), and flies and other pollinators are drawn by their putrid odor as well as by the flowers’ warmth.

2 months ago | snexplores.org | Aaron Tremper |Nikk Ogasa |Stephen Ornes |Rachel Ehrenberg

Visit your local natural history museum gift shop and you’ll probably find a container of dinosaur toys for sale. Dump out its contents, though, and you’ll likely find some imposters, says Nathan Smith. He should know. He’s director and curator of the Dinosaur Institute in California. It’s part of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Winged pterosaurs are a common fraud. So is the sail-backed carnivore, Dimetrodon. The word “dinosaur” isn’t a catch-all term for just any scaly, prehistoric giant.

Aug 20, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Rachel Ehrenberg

Petunias have never done much for me. If you had told me that one day, I’d fork over more than $50 for a single petunia plant, my eyes would have rolled out of my head. But this plant was special. This petunia glowed in the dark. My plant was one of 50,000 shipped around the United States in April by the Idaho-based biotech start-up Light Bio. Called the “Firefly” petunia, it contains genes from bioluminescent mushrooms that make it constantly glow.

Aug 18, 2024 | theunconventionalgardener.com | Rachel Ehrenberg

Header image: A greenhouse filled with petunias engineered to glow continuously by the biotech start-up Light Bio. Image credit: LIGHT BIO INC. I bought a glowing plant. It led me down a rabbit hole of radiant mushrooms, 19th century experiments and a modern rivalry between scientists in Russia and the Americas. Petunias have never done much for me. If you had told me that one day, I’d fork over more than $50 for a single petunia plant, my eyes would have rolled out of my head.