A tiny wooden device that buries seeds

This tiny wooden device buries seeds.

No motor. No battery. Moisture makes the wood twist, helping the carrier work its way into the soil.

Time-lapse footage of the experimental wooden E-seed carrier burrowing — Carnegie Mellon / Morphing Matter Lab. Original research imagery; experimental device, documentary animation/frame.

Carnegie Mellon researchers fashioned these experimental carriers from wood veneer.

They designed three tails to help the carrier stand upright before it burrows.

Three-tailed wooden seed carriers made by the Morphing Matter Lab — Carnegie Mellon / Morphing Matter Lab. Original research imagery; experimental device, documentary animation/frame.

The inspiration came from Erodium plants, whose seeds have coiled appendages that move as moisture changes.

The wooden carrier borrows that natural mechanism to help plant other seeds.

Diagram of an Erodium seed’s natural coiled appendage from the researchers’ film — Carnegie Mellon / Morphing Matter Lab. Original research imagery; experimental device, documentary animation/frame.

This tiny wooden device buries seeds.

No motor. No battery. Moisture makes the wood twist, helping the carrier work its way into the soil.
Carnegie Mellon researchers fashioned these experimental carriers from wood veneer.

They designed three tails to help the carrier stand upright before it burrows.
The inspiration came from Erodium plants, whose seeds have coiled appendages that move as moisture changes.

The wooden carrier borrows that natural mechanism to help plant other seeds.

A tiny wooden device that buries seeds

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