From harvard.edu: Clues in the cucumber’s climb.

Harvard researchers, captivated by a strange coiling behavior in the grasping tendrils of the cucumber plant, have characterized a new type of spring that is soft when pulled gently and stiff when pulled strongly.

Instead of unwinding to a flat ribbon under stress, as an untwisted coil normally would, the cucumber’s tendrils actually coil further. Understanding this counterintuitive behavior required a combination of physical and mathematical modeling and cell biology — not to mention a large quantity of [continue]