💡 Don’t Miss the Electric Clouds This Summer

The latest from Nautilus, this week’s Facts So Romantic, and your question of the day. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for stopping by. Today we have the moss that could terraform Mars. Plus, you won’t want to miss the electric clouds this summer. And in this week’s Facts So Romantic—fictional gender bias, the “cow of the Cretaceous,” and more. I sympathize with all your responses to the robot question—mine would brush my dog’s teeth! Check out your question today (on being stranded) and free story (on seeing the light) below. Catch you next time! —Brian Gallagher The latest in Nautilus ENVIRONMENT The Moss That Could Terraform Mars A superhero plant that could thrive on the Red Planet. BY TOM METCALFE Mars may be our best hope for a human colony on another planet, but it has real drawbacks: For a start, it’s mainly a rocky desert that is blasted by deadly radiation, exposed to hostile temperatures, and, so far, seems to possess no identifiable forms of life or sustenance. [Continue reading→]( Restore the Planet, One Mission at a Time What if bees can help save elephants? What if dogs can be trained to protect sea turtles? What if a powerline can be transformed into an insect highway? Those are just a few of the innovative missions [Planet Wild]( is funding as part of their efforts to restore the planet. [Planet Wild]( is a community of nature lovers pooling their contributions to fund efficient projects that save animals, oceans, and forests. You can join them for as little as $6/month and cancel anytime you want. Nautilus readers get their [first month free](, just use the code NAUTILUS5. [Join Planet Wild]( More from Nautilus [ENVIRONMENT]( Don’t Miss the Electric Clouds This Summer Climate change and rocket exhaust are seeding a light show in the northern skies. BY BRIANA BROWNELL [Continue reading→]( FACTS SO ROMANTIC The 5 Best Things We Learned Today Noctilucent or “night-shining” clouds sparkle at twilight because they are so high up in the atmosphere that the sun can still catch on them long after the rest of the sky has gone to bed. [Nautilus→]( Because the current slate of language AIs have only learned to mimic the statistics of our messy language, they can’t represent the difference between fact and fiction. [Nautilus→]( In the wild, the tortula moss turns completely black when it has lost 98 percent of its water. [Nautilus→]( In 87,531 works of fiction written between 1850 and 2010, female characters were persistently portrayed as more passive, especially by male authors. [PNAS→]( The hip bone belonging to one of the “cows of the Cretaceous period (145-66 million years ago)” is about the size of a dinner plate. [BBC→]( Insects + Flowers = Natural Art Yoshiyuki Katayama captures the world of insects through elegant timelapses of unfurling blossoms in her ongoing series “Umwelt.” Visit [Colossal]( to see more. [Visit Colossal]( WE'RE CURIOUS TO KNOW... What is your most memorable experience of being stranded somewhere? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by�€œ[Nasa astronauts from Boeing’s Starliner may be stuck in space until August]([.]([”]([)]( Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On What You’d Have a Single-Purpose Robot Do) • My housekeeping! So I can devote myself to writing and learning languages in my spare time. I read somewhere that AI should be doing the dishes so that we can create art, instead of having AI creating art so we have time to do the dishes. – Eliana H. • Dust my house. I’m sure everyone reading this response will be shaking their heads in agreement! – Maryann S. • I would like to have a human-resembling robot that kept up with all the news from all perspectives and opinions—without prejudice—and could discuss and debate with me over the issues I ask about. As with most people, I am caught in an algorithmic info bubble of opinions and news angles I generally agree with, and have to search really hard to get other opinions so I can draw my own conclusions on what is real, what is “news” created by someone with their own agenda, and what is simply made up by an AI bot. – Laura T. • My wife and I are in agreement on this one: It would be a robot that specializes in maintaining the lawn, and gardening. We're both getting a bit old to keep up with it ourselves, and love growing our own food. – Daniel S. QUOTE OF THE DAY “It turns out that tortula moss possesses a resilience to stress worthy of a comic-book superhero.” [Tom Metcalfe writes about the promise one plant holds to seed life on Mars.]( Your free story this Thursday! COMMUNICATION 20 Ways to See the Light The meaning of light through history in science, religion, philosophy, and culture. BY JONATHON KEATS “That natural agent or influence which evokes the functional activity of the organ of sight.” [Continue reading for free→]( VIVE LES SCIENCES! The Tour de France is here and the perfect companion to cycling's biggest event is a print edition of Nautilus. [Issue 51]( features "Winning By a Hair," a story about the science and history behind cyclists shaving their legs, along with much more of our signature science storytelling. [Get your copy for only $15]( (Nautilus members get 15% off). [Get Issue 51 for only $15]( P.S. The American physicist and engineer Theodore Maiman was born on this day in 1927. He worked at Hughes Research Laboratory, founded in Malibu, CA, by the world-famous inventor Howard Hughes. In the year the lab opened, 1960, Maiman announced [the first working prototype of a laser](. His own assistant referred to it as “a solution looking for a problem,” and Hughes declined to develop it further. “One of the first uses was by surgeons blasting tumors,” wrote Jonathan Keats. “As with the X-ray, the laser first touched our lives through the pragmatism of doctors.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. 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