The touch-me-not plant, officially known as mimosa pudica, quickly contracts its leaves when shaken or brushed by assumed predators. When one of these specimens senses danger like a nearby herbivore ready to take a bite, calcium erupts within its system, prompting exposed areas to recoil. Scientists have known since the 1980s that other plants, not […]
“Triticum” (2020), wooden platform and flame-shaped borosilicate glass, 26 x 27 centimeters. Photo by Steven van Kooijk. All images © Nataliya Vladychko, shared with permission “After the fire brigades rescued the London Natural History Museum from German incendiaries, Albizia silk-tree seeds bloomed on their herbarium sheets, liberated from two hundred years of dormancy by the precise combination […]