is STILL creating wolf art TO THIS DAY. TEN YEARS LATER. proof that the world is beautiful. her username is wolfroad! you can find her art right here, and here are a few of her more recent pieces that I absolutely adore:

The titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) flower rarely blooms, but when it does, the sight—and smell—can be utterly breathtaking. This plant’s giant bloom can grow up to 9 ft (2.7 m) tall and emits a powerful perfume that resembles the stench of rotting flesh. Why? To some insects, it’s a seductive scent, luring potential pollinators toward the female parts of the flower, where they can pick up pollen and carry it off to fertilize other flowers. This spectacular display is short lived, occurring for only about three days once every two or three years.

[Q: Why did you decide to do this experiment?

A: Snake behavior has been generally neglected as a field of research, especially in Brazil. And most studies don’t examine what factors make them want to bite. If you study malaria, you can research the parasite that causes the disease—but if you don’t study the mosquito that carries it, you will never solve the problem. Up until now, the popular wisdom was that the jararaca would only attack if you touched it or stepped on it. But that was not what we found.

Q: Why did you need to be the victim?

A: The best way to do this research is to put snakes and a human together. In this case, the human was me. We put the snakes inside a ring on the floor of our lab until they got used to it, then I stepped in wearing special protective boots. I stepped close to the snake and also lightly on top of it. I didn’t put my whole weight on my foot, so I did not hurt the snakes. I tested 116 animals and stepped 30 times on every animal, totaling 40,480 steps.]