Darkened, thickened bands between leaf veins—seen here on an American beech leaf—are characteristic symptoms of beech leaf disease (BLD). First detected in northeastern Ohio in 2012, BLD has since ...

"The design mimics the structure of leaf veins," said LI Xiaofei, a member of the team, "which balances strength and speed of the actuator." The result was published in Advanced Materials.

Moreover, unlike angiosperms, the leaves of Furcula did not reach high densities of veins, and thus were not as efficient as angiosperm leaves in fixing carbon. The authors suggest that Furcula ...