Humane Traps

Popular Science explores whether carnivorous plants such as Venus flytraps and pitcher plants could consume a human. The short answer is no: these plants are adapted to trap insects and occasionally small vertebrates like frogs, and lack the size, strength and digestive capacity to consume people. The topic resurfaces regularly thanks to pop-culture depictions of man-eating plants, prompting science outlets to explain the real limits of botanical predation.

Popular Science examines whether carnivorous plants such as Venus flytraps and pitcher plants could ever consume a human. The short answer is no: these plants capture insects and small prey using traps, digestive enzymes and slippery surfaces, but they lack the size, strength and chemistry to break down anything close to human scale. The piece explains how the plants' mechanisms work and why human flesh poses no realistic danger, feeding ongoing curiosity about nature's strangest predators.

Encircled Russian soldiers asked Ukraine's special forces for five minutes to pray before surrendering or being taken into captivity, according to accounts circulating about the incident. The story is drawing attention as a striking example of the human moments inside the grinding war, and of the growing number of Russian troops surrendering on the front lines.