Carnivorous Plants

Everyone knows that plants belong at the bottom of the food chain… but what about when they don’t? This episode, Matt and Kate talk all about carnivorous plants. That’s right… plants that eat animal flesh to get the juicy nutrients that they need to survive. We all know about the venus fly trap, but HOW does it work? And what about some of the other 600+ species of carnivorous plant? How do they attack, kill, and digest their prey? And also… why? This week’s listener question is about weighted blankets and how they might affect your dreams.Episode References:https://www.pnas.org/content/112/1/10https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031942210004450?via%3Dihubhttps://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/60/1/19/567619https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00394867https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00395768https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03185http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/99/4/1271https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-04-01/carnivorous-plants-drosera-insect-killers/9596170?nw=0https://www.jscimedcentral.com/SleepMedicine/sleepmedicine-2-1022.pdfhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb_SLZFsMyQYou can follow Curiosity Killed the Rat on twitter (https://twitter.com/CuriosityRat), Insta (https://www.instagram.com/curiosityrat/), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/curiosityrat/), and email in your listener questions to curiosityrat@gmail.com