The twirling seeds of maple trees spin like miniature helicopters as they fall to the ground. Because the seeds descend slowly as they swirl, they're carried aloft by the wind and dispersed over great ...

Like helicoptering maple seeds, tiny new fliers whirl gracefully as they glide. The miniature aircraft, which can be made as small as a grain of sand, could be dispersed by air over long distances.

The seeds that twirl down from maple treesevery spring can fly as far as a mile, with each wing-shaped seed spinning like a whirligig on the air. Studies have shown that the seed’s whirling, called ...

When wind or other disturbances detach winged maple seeds called samaras from their parent tree, they spin through the air – ...

Although humans can fly with the help of copious engineering, Mother Nature has already come up with much simpler ways to soar, like the way a maple tree’s spinning seeds scatter by floating on the ...

Maple tree seeds and the spiraling pattern in which they glide to the ground have delighted children for ages and perplexed engineers for decades. Now aerospace engineering graduate students have ...

LATE 1990S, IS ACTUALLY A SIMPLE CONCEPT. IT’S IMITATING NATURE TO SOLVE PROBLEMS OR INVENTING SOMETHING, USING NATURE AS INSPIRATION. NATURE IS THE PATHWAY TO SCIENCE AND INVENTION. HERE AT THE ...

Around the summertime, you might often see maple seeds—also known as “helicopter” seeds—twirl and dance in the air before floating to the ground. While they’re fun to play with as a kid, adults are ...