Today in Science: A nuclear-powered mission to Mars

Plus, the rankest flower in the forest. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

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March 24, 2026—The bizarre and absolutely rank wonder of the corpse flower. Plus, NASA announces a nuclear-powered mission to Mars and the long history of pinot noir. Let's go.   —Andrea Gawrylewski Chief Newsletter Editor TODAY'S NEWS An image of the star WISPIT 2 taken by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. . ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al. Astronomers have discovered a newly-forming baby solar system around a star called WISPIT 2 some 437 light-years from Earth—it is only the second ever to be confirmed. | 2 min read  Is social media addictive? Here's what the science says. | 4 min read Why Iran is targeting Qatar's liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, and how long it will take the industry to recover. | 3 min read  NASA announced it will launch a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars before the end of 2028. It would be the first interplanetary spacecraft mission powered by nuclear propulsion. | 1 min read Is 0.999... equal to 1? Mathematicians can't agree. | 4 min read A new poll finds that just six in 10 Americans trust the federal government's childhood vaccine recommendations, down sharply from a previous survey less than a year ago. | 2 min read Humans have loved pinot noir for a long time: An analysis of ancient grape seed DNA revealed the earliest known instance of humans in France purposefully cloning plants—including for pinot noir grapes—from the 15th century. | 2 min read More News Want to dive deeper into the science that interests you? Consider a subscription to Scientific American. Today in Science readers get special discounts! TOP STORIES Visitors to a botanical garden in Basel, Switzerland, attend the blooming of a corpse plant. Sebastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images What's That Smell? The most popular plant variety at many botanical gardens around the world? You might guess orchids or even succulents. But the real crowd pleaser is a 10-foot tall, phallic-looking plant that absolutely reeks and only blooms every seven years or more. Researchers have been studying the corpse plant (Amorphophallus titanum), which is endemic to the rainforests of western Sumatra, since the late 1800s and found it to be an exceptional example of evolutionary mimicry—it evolved to look and smell like decaying meat in order to attract the flies, beetles and other bugs that feed on carrion.  Why this is interesting: In most cases of evolutionary mimicry, the mimicked feature or behavior is not an exact copy of the original. But the corpse plant has recreated the precise sulfur-based chemicals that emit the putrescence of decaying meat found in actual decaying meat. The rank compound is derived from the breakdown of particular amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The physical features of the corpse flower and its long protrusion, called a spadix, have ripples, grooves, bumps and discolorations that are strikingly similar to those on the surface of rotting flesh. And inside the spadix, mitochondria produce heat that is released, helping disperse the stench and attract pollinators.  The future: Despite its popularity in captivity, the endangered plant numbers fewer than 1,000 in the wild. Forest clearing for oil palm plantations in Sumatra have significantly cut into its native habitat. And though its smell is strong, even strong stenches don't travel as far if the air is polluted. A recent study determined that polluted air can diminish the fragrance plumes and even change the chemical profile of the scent. In theory, these effects could reduce the number of pollinators that visit these plants in the rainforest. In 2022 researchers documented a bloom measuring more than 14 feet tall in the rainforest of West Sumatra—one of the largest on record. Adi Prima/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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PUZZLER Can you unscramble this puzzle of our July 1956 cover? The image shows one of the colossal statue heads found at the summit of Mount Nemrut in Türkiye, where archaeological expeditions revealed the tomb of Antiochus I, who ruled broad swaths of west Asia in the era after Alexander the Great's death.  More Jigsaw Puzzles Check out these great time lapse videos of a corpse flower blooming. The first was filmed 10 years ago at the Chicago Botanical Garden when its specimen bloomed over a 24-hour period after being dormant for more than 11 years. The second was posted by the Colorado State University College of Agricultural Sciences, whose corpse flower bloomed after eight years of dormancy. "Dormant" implies that the plant is inactive and shut down through all that time, but in between blooms, the corpse flower is storing starch in its tuber underground, biding its time until it has enough fuel for growth. Life isn't a constant bloom; it's long stretches of quiet living until everything aligns. Have you seen a corpse flower in person? Tell me how it was by emailing: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow!   —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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