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Happy Thursday, everyone!

Today’s topics include glowing plants and a micronation. Strange things abound!

That said, let’s dive into the odd and obscure.

Glowing Houseplants

Courtesy of Light Bio

Let’s face it. We all love things that glow in the dark!

Well, an inventive bioengineer has now made glow-in-the-dark houseplants.

But let’s back up just a bit.

Several things in the world naturally have a bioluminescent quality, including bacteria, worms, arthropods (I know, I had to look it up, too!), fish, etc.

This particular bioluminescence (boy, that’s a mouthful) comes from mushrooms.

It gives the dull brown mushroom a greenish glow after dark.

So, this scientist decided to take DNA from this mushroom and introduce it into houseplants, specifically petunias.

Now, you have a variety of petunia that glows green in the dark.

How cool is that?

Have You Ever Wanted to Be King… or Queen?

A man named Travis McHenry decided he wanted his own nation and went about making it happen.

There was also no need to overthrow other nations to create his own. He simply staked his claim using a loophole in the Antarctic Treaty of 1959.

It’s been through some hard times and has changed hands more than once, but now it has a population of over two thousand, albeit virtual citizens.

That’s because Westarctica is some of the most inhospitable land area on the planet.

But Grand Duke Travis has created a flag and even currency.

The Grand Duchy of Westarctica is a member of the Arctic Micronational Union (AMU) and operates as a non-profit organization to raise awareness of climate change.

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