Never before seen...?

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh have discovered the secret to dandelion flight: a vortex of air previously unseen in nature.

Now there’s a familiar bit of everyday wonder — dandelion seeds in flight. Just blow on a dandelion head and watch the tufts separate and drift off — a block, a mile, maybe 50 miles. So how do they do it?
Scientists knew that it all depended on the intricate structure of the seed’s fluffy top, known as a pappus. But how did it work? Like a balloon, or a wing or something completely different?

To find out, researchers used a small wind tunnel to mimic a falling seed. They recorded in great detail how the air flowed through and around the pappus. What they discovered was a vortex never seen before in nature. As air moved around and through the parachute-like top of the dandelion seed, the complex interaction of air currents eventually formed a vortex. And that swirl of air created a low-pressure area that helped hold the seed up, allowing it to travel long distances on the wind.

It’s an example of how evolution can produce ingenious solutions to the most finicky problems, such as seed dispersal. There are many things unknown that are smaller than atoms, or larger than galaxies, or billions of years away in time. But there are secrets held by things that we take for granted — things on a human or near-human scale — that seem all the more precious for it. Heaven in a wild flower, even.

(Various sources).