💡 Flowers Made Us, Just Kill ET, Earth’s Ancient Rings, and More

The latest from Nautilus, the top science news, and more. [View in Browser]( | [Join Nautilus]( Did a friend forward this? Sign up here Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for stopping by. Today we grapple with the counterintuitive idea that, to communicate with aliens effectively, we should try to kill them. Plus, we entertain the idea that Earth once had rings like Saturn, and appreciate the attention a famous poet paid to the life of flowers. Also, in the news: the oldest, continuously used termite mound; watching Antarctica become green; and more. I’m not sure what it is about birds, but most of you wrote in, in response to our last question about nature sightings, about a time you had a remarkable avian encounter. As for myself, it was a terrifyingly impressive sight to witness, up around Lake Tahoe, the barren mountain sides where the fires not long ago left charred trunks where thousands of pine trees had stood. Check out today’s question (on your favorite aliens) and free story (on lucky rituals) below. Have a good one! — Brian Gallagher The latest from Nautilus If You Meet ET in Space, Kill Him Should an alien species resist, we will have discovered life. [Continue Reading→]( When Earth Had Rings A new way of thinking about the history of the Earth. [Continue Reading→]( Flowers and the Birth of Ecology Without flowers, there would be no us. [Continue Reading→]( Don’t limit your curiosity. Enjoy unlimited ad-free Nautilus stories every month for less than $5/month. [Join now]( Is AI Art Really Art? “There’s definitely a lot of mental breakdowns at the studio if I’m being so real,” Lunar Vacation singer Gep Repasky said in a recent interview about the emotional toll creating the band’s latest album took on her. “I probably cried like every other day.” It’s a familiar story for artists of all stripes, but what about artificial intelligence? AI has no emotions so what does that mean about the art it produces? Explore these questions and more when you [watch]( or [listen]( to Repasky read Ed Simon’s [story]( “Is AI Art Really Art?” on [YouTube]( or [Spotify](. [Watch on YouTube]( The top science news this week • Scientists discovered that termites have been living in a South African mound uninterrupted for 34,000 years, since the time of the Neanderthals. [Read on The New York Times→]( • The asteroid that killed the non-avian dinosaurs didn’t act alone, apparently. It had a minor accomplice that struck off the coast of West Africa around the same time, leaving a crater 5 miles wide—an impact that would have caused, among other things, an 800-meter high tsunami. [Read on The Guardian→]( • Antarctica is fast becoming a lush, green landscape, with icy conditions receding at an accelerated rate especially since 2016. [Read on Nature→]( • Future astronauts traveling deep into the solar system could potentially live off nutrients extracted from asteroids like Bennu. If the extraction process, using bacteria, is efficient enough, it could provide enough calories to sustain 600 to 17,000 travelers for a year. [Read on the International Journal of Astrobiology→]( • Scientists created artificial plants that capture more carbon dioxide than natural plants, and generate electricity using energy they receive from photosynthesizing indoor light. [Read on Advanced Sustainable Systems→]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Which alien beings from a sci-fi story—machine or biological—are your favorite? Send us your answer! Reply to this newsletter with a brief explanation of your response, and we’ll reveal the top answers in a future newsletter. This question was inspired by “If You Meet ET in Space, Kill Him.” [Read on Nautilus→]( Top answers to our previous question: On Your Most Memorable Nature Sighting When I was about 11 and out hiking in Utah with my family, I sat down on a fallen tree. I had been there for a little while when a hawk landed on the other end with a snake in its beak. I held my breath so as not to disturb the bird as it gulped down the snake and then took off. – Rhonda M. I was in the mountains of Cloudcroft, NM, on a curving dirt road, and as I looked ahead at the trees directly in front of me, a solitary lightning bolt came out of nowhere—I literally saw the bolt of lightning right in front of me as it hit a tree. With an ear-splitting crack, the tree split in half all the way to the ground. – Maya B. A hawk was screaming at and chasing a bald eagle down river, 50 feet away from me. The eagle turned and came back up river at the same time the hawk gained altitude. The hawk then closed its wings and made an 80-degree dive at the eagle, right in front of me. I thought, “Is the hawk really going to kill the eagle?!” But at the last second the eagle flipped on its back, flying upside down, and put up its talons to grab the hawk! In the last split second the hawk managed to avoid the talons, and the eagle rolled back upright and continued flying up river, like nothing happened. I didn’t know that eagles could fly upside down. Something I’ll never forget. – Diane M. I found a little hummingbird on the ground one summer when the temperature was in the 100s. I thought it was dead, but when I touched the bird it moved. I dissolved some granulated goldfish food, all I had, and fed it with a dropper. It would sit on a branch or on my index finger when I fed it in the mornings and in the evenings. Drops of water in between. It stayed by a rock wall hiding under plants, but would appear when I approached the area. This went on until one day it flapped its wings and flew off. Other hummingbirds in the area were mostly red. This one was a beautiful sparkling emerald green. It came back every year for a while. I have a picture of it on a little twig that I held for the bird to perch on while it ate. – Pou J. Get a Limited-Edition Nautilus Reali-Tee Shirt! A collaboration between Nautilus and French designer Mathieu Courbier of Almost Free Services, this [limited-edition t-shirt]( showcases the abstract nature of reality. [Buy now]( Today’s unlocked free story ANTHROPOLOGY The Rituals That Ward Off Bad Luck Aren’t Arbitrary Bodily experiences inform the way we think. BY ELIZABETH LANDAU For the last two years of his baseball career, George Gmelch didn’t eat pancakes. [Continue reading]( P.S. The American basketball player Michael Jordan retired (for the first time) from the N.B.A.’s Chicago Bulls on this day in 1993. He felt that, after leading his team to three consecutive championships, he was no longer motivated to play. Jordan had nothing more to prove. What accounted for his success? A combination of hard work and talent, no doubt—[but what about a good luck charm](? For each of his games, Jordan wore the blue practice shorts of his college alma mater, which he had led to a championship, underneath his Bulls uniform, wrote science writer Elizabeth Landau. She quoted a study on luck-related rituals: “[T]he present findings suggest that it may have been the well-balanced combination of existing talent, hard training, and good-luck underwear that made Michael Jordan perform as well as he did.” Thanks for reading! What did you think of today's note? 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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