The first part of the study was simple enough, just studying the design of a dandelion seed with ultra-precise X-ray scans and regular light microscopy. The authors dutifully report that each pappus, ...

For the dandelion, the seed head is about 90 per cent porous ... The research suggests this design works well at a very small scale and hope it can be useful to improve drone technology to ...

Because dandelions can reproduce both sexually (through pollination) and asexually, every seed emerging from a dandelion’s head can have ... equations could aid the design of better ...

design and perfection. The first attractive quality of the Dandelion clock is its down-soft, puffy, see-through roundness, its near-perfect spherical shape. If the ball-shaped head doesn't fall ...

Eventually these insights could be used to design tiny drones that ride the wind. When a dandelion seed takes flight, its downy fluff serves as a tiny parachute to carry it on the breeze.