Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Winged seeds called samaras grow on maple trees. These are seeds from the Japanese maple, _Acer palmatum_. AlessandroZocc/iStock ...

PASADENA, Calif.—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 can be carried aloft by the wind and ...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO)-- Whirligigs? Helicopter seeds? Or perhaps the scientific name – samaras -- for the silver maple seeds flying in yards this spring. Whatever you call them, some WCCO-TV viewers have ...

Smoke particles in a wind tunnel illuminated with laser light around a freely flying maple seed reveal a prominent leading edge vortex. The visualization of the leading edge vortex on this and 31 ...

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 ...

Researchers have developed a tiny robot replicating the aerial dance of falling maple seeds. In the future, this robot could be used for real-time environmental monitoring or delivery of small samples ...