New research into the biomechanics of explosive seed dispersal in squirting cucumbers (Ecballium elaterium) reveals how these plants have adapted a suite of unique traits that help propel their ...

Take a look at squirting cucumber explosive seed dispersal in real time and slowed down. Credit: Helen Gorges/CC BY-NC-ND One doesn’t normally associate ballistics with botany, but most of us don’t ...

“Crazy plant,” cooed Helen Gorges, a biomechanist at Kiel University, after witnessing the ballistic seed dispersal of the squirting cucumber. In plant biomechanics, there are few vistas that can ...

Three summers ago, Kiel University biomechanist Stainslav Gorb, returned to Germany after a vacation in Turkey with a present for Ph.D. student Helen Gorges. "He came back and was like, 'Helen, I ...