A mathematical model explains how popping cress catapults its seeds into the air

Plants use many strategies to disperse their seeds, but among the most fascinating are exploding seed pods. Scientists had assumed that the energy to power these explosions was generated through the seed pods deforming as they dried out, but in the case of 'popping cress' (Cardamine hirsuta) this turns out not to be so. Scientists at the the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, found out that these seed pods don't wait to dry before they explode.