Unwinding the Cucumber Tendril Mystery

Plants may be stationary but they're rarely still, says biologist Roger Hangarter, creator of the website Plants in Motion. Researchers are using time-lapse photography to study the biomechanics of plant movement. For example, this week in the journal Science, physicist Sharon Gerbode, of Harvey Mudd College, and biologist Joshua Puzey, of Harvard University, explain how they used time-lapse, mathematical modelling and a prosthetic plant to understand how cucumber tendrils twist.