[BioE Spr 15] The Structure of Strength
May 27, 2015 • 11:27 AM UTC
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cjb
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Makers recognize that structural stability is integral to any good design. The buds of flowers that we see now are beautiful, but they owe their existence to the flexibility and strength that allows them to endure winds and crawling critters. I wanted to know what structures exist that provide this strength in flowers.
I collected two different deep purple buds from the Engineering Quad at Stanford. and prepared slides for the base of each flower to view in my foldscope. The first slide featured a collection of pigmented cells surrounding a central stem. Each cell is crowded closely, as to distribute the hoop stress of the given stalk easily. Each cell itself is translucent, with the depth of the cells yielding saturation of color. For this bud, form follows structural functionality, and packing efficiency creates structural integrity.
I collected two different deep purple buds from the Engineering Quad at Stanford. and prepared slides for the base of each flower to view in my foldscope. The first slide featured a collection of pigmented cells surrounding a central stem. Each cell is crowded closely, as to distribute the hoop stress of the given stalk easily. Each cell itself is translucent, with the depth of the cells yielding saturation of color. For this bud, form follows structural functionality, and packing efficiency creates structural integrity.
The second bud was much different. Upon a first look, the flower is just a streak of red-purple branching outwards. After adjusting the focus, I then saw something very unusual – a collection of nearly transparent, thin stalks, balled at the end. Maybe they are bony precursors to sepals. Even in their infancy, the balled ends could create a tangled web to protect the petals cells from intruders from below. The round “eyelets” appearing on a few of the stalks supports this tangling idea.
These thin stalks also bore a resemblance to stalks in the stem wall at the top of the flower. But why? Time for more investigation!
Chris Billovits
Matthew Loeun
Matthew Loeun
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