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This week’s new questions

Why do Venus fly traps and pitcher plants trap and digest insects if they are fully capable of photosynthesis? Does fresh air heat up faster than stale air?

13 May 2026

E7MK5Y Insectivorous plant Venus fly trap (Dionaea muscipula) digesting a captured mosquito. Plant house, Galveston, Texas, USA.

Ivan Kuzmin / Alamy

Edith Goi
via email

 

Bennekom/Alamy

Is it true that fresh air heats up faster than stale air? And, if so, why?

Hanna Pennig
Turriff, Aberdeenshire, UK

 

Last Word is Âé¶¹´«Ã½’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To answer a question or ask a new one, email lastword@newscientist.com

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