Scientific American slip-up

[bouncingwatermelon]

I wonder if this thread is in the right place or not, but this is definitely a big topic involving a well known magazine!

I subscribed to Scientific American monthly magazines and it comes by post to my house roughly every month. I opened the mail box today to find the February '12 edition of the magazine. I flipped through pages, read some articles... then this!

Interview by Gareth Cook. "The Brittle Star's Apprentice." Scientific American February 2012: 64-67

"My group has become interested in "wettability," which refers to how much a material attracts or repels liquids [...] For 15 years everybody has been looking to the lotus leaf for inspiration because water naturally flows right off it. But the community has realized that it's going to be extremely chalenging [...] So we have turned to another natural model: the pitcher plant. The pitcher plant is carnivorous. It has an incredibly slippery surface. If an ant climbs on, it will just slide into the flower, where it is trapped and digested."

Teeth grinding! I guess I have to inform the staff.

[Apoplast]

Well it is a "popular" science magazine, and it appears from your quote that it was the interviewee who stated that pitchers are flowers. Still, it would have been nice to see the magazine correct his mistake. I think you should definitely tell them. They should be held to a higher scientific journalistic standard than that. Let us know if you hear back.