Nell Greenfield Boyce
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In the journal Science, researchers report that the nocturnal beetles that pollinate these plants...
have antennae that are specially designed to sense heat.
And experiments with a fake cone that heated up showed that the beetles would home in on the source of the infrared radiation.
The researchers say that long before colorful flowers emerged...
To attract later insects like bees and butterflies, plants were using an infrared glow to attract poor-sighted pollinators that were active at night.
Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.
The palm-like plants, called cycads, live in the tropics.
They make pollen and seeds in long, pinecone-like structures, and the plant can heat these cones up.
In the journal Science, researchers report that the nocturnal beetles that pollinate these plants...
have antennae that are specially designed to sense heat.
And experiments with a fake cone that heated up showed that the beetles would home in on the source of the infrared radiation.
The researchers say that long before colorful flowers emerged to attract later insects like bees and butterflies, plants were using an infrared glow to attract poor-sighted pollinators that were active at night.
Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News.
The new report lays out how to maximize the scientific return from a future mission that sends astronauts to the red planet.
It suggests several possible exploration campaigns, describing exactly what kind of crew and equipment would be required.
The top-ranked option, for example, would involve a human landing lasting more than 30 days on Mars...
plus a longer one lasting about a year, and would require a large suite of science instruments.
But another possible mission would involve setting up a drilling rig at one site and drilling down deep into the Martian crust in search of liquid water where microbes might live.