How a cucumber creates its curling tendril has puzzled scientists for centuries. Even Charles Darwin and Asa Gray were stumped. Now, with the help of time-lapse photography and prosthetic tendril fabricated in the lab, physicist Sharon Gerbode, biologist Joshua Puzey, and colleagues have figured out why tendrils twist, according to a new study in Science.
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Flora Lichtman
Flora Lichtman is a host of Science Friday. In a previous life, she lived on a research ship where apertivi were served on the top deck, hoisted there via pulley by the ship’s chef.