Steady Burs

If you go down to the woods today you might come home covered in sticky plant parts. These may be the burs or dry fruit of 'hitchhiker' plants like Harpagonella palmeri (left) – they often use animals as vehicles to spread their seeds. Bioengineers are very interested in H. palmeri’s secret – tiny hooks (seen zoomed in on the right), which allow the fruit to spread their weight across an attached surface, especially one that might be moving quickly. The researchers find that varying the spacing, size and stiffness of these hooks allows the plants to balance the stressful forces involved, so they can cling on. The team are now investigating ways to mimic these plucky plants in human surgery, where, H. palmeri might inspire new ways of attaching moving tendons to bones.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image left by Matt Berger on Wikipedia
• Image right and research by Ethan D. Hoppe et al, Genin Lab, NSF Science and Technology Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
• Image left published under a CC-BY-4.0 license. Image right copyright Genin Lab, WUSTL
• Research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, March 2023