On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
“Muscles” powered by changing humidity apparently help wild wheat seeds reach good places to sprout. Each pointy-tipped seed bears two long, bristly appendages called awns. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm, Germany, found that cellulose fibrils make them expand with humidity, pushing the appendages together, and contract with dryness, pulling them apart. This flexing acts like the swimming stroke of a frog's legs, the researchers say, to propel the seeds along and into the ground. They suggest in the May 11 Science that wheat is optimized for the daily cycle of humidity seen during the dry period (which occurs after the seeds ripen) in the Fertile Crescent, where the crop originated.
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
