Slightly-intriguing study title of the month: “Damage to Seeds by Screw Working Bodies,” Mayya Sukhanova, Eduard Khasanov, Alexander Butenko, Shamil Fayzrakhmanov, and Rinat Fayzullin, Heliyon, 2023, article e18973. The authors explain: “The occurrence of mechanical damage to seeds caused by the operative components of agricultural machinery…” The image you see above is from the study.
A new paper (“A separated vortex ring underlies the flight of the dandelion“) published in Nature tells how dandelion seeds create a vortex that keeps them floating through the skies. This little video shows and tells the story of that: (Thanks to the ever-discovery-filled Cocktail Party Physics for bringing this to our attention.) UPDATE (October […]
Perhaps it’s not all that widely appreciated that several members of Crocodylia (that’s the taxonomic order, not a thrash metal band) are quite partial to a bit of fruit now and again. In fact, reveals a new paper in the Journal of Zoology “ … there is little doubt that on occasion, fruit is deliberately […]
A “new” Swedish invention (and/or perhaps publicity-seeking device) seems just a repeat of an American invention patented in 1976. See below for details of the original patent. (Thanks to investigator Jesse Eppers for bringing this to our attention.) The Swedish project, called Flowershell, has promotional videos. Here’s one of those: Huffington Post discusses it: “‘Flower Shell’ Makes […]
Can music encourage seeds to sprout? According to research published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Volume 10, Number 1, 2004, pp. 113–122, the answer is yes. Gary E.R. Schwartz, Professor of Psychology, Neurology and Psychiatry, at the University of Arizona performed a set of experiments with colleague Katherine Creath, Ph.D. (Optical Science), […]