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New research led by an Irish scientist has discovered that dandelion seeds use a form of flying not used by anything else in nature to disperse themselves.
In time, the study’s findings could be used to design small scale drones that require minimal if any power.
“We found a natural solution for flight that minimises the material and energy costs, which can be applied to engineering of sustainable technology,” said Dr Cathal Cummins, of the University of Edinburgh’s Schools of Biological Sciences and Engineering.
The extraordinary ability is the result of the movement of air around and within the parachute-shaped bundles of bristles on the top of the seed filaments, known as pappus.
Researchers, led by Dr Cummins, found that when air travels through the bristles it creates a ring-shaped air bubble called a separated vortex ring.
The bubble is physically detached from the bristles and stabilised by air flowing through it.
This increases the drag, in turn slowing down the speed of each seed as it falls towards the ground and keeping it steady.
The effect makes the common weed one of the natural world’s top fliers, enabling the seeds to travel a kilometre or more on the wind and making it more than four times more efficient than regular parachute designs.
The spacing between the bristles precisely controls the flow of air through them.
The finding was made following a series of experiments by the research team, the results of which are published in the journal Nature.
These involved placing the filaments in a wind tunnel and using long-exposure photography and high-speed imaging to capture their movement.
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