The reproductive organ of moss is the inspiration designed for pipettes

The new pipette is designed based on the shape of the moss reproductive organ. This device holds a drop of water thanks to the surface tension of the water.

The moss is a group of plants that closely follow the ground that make up male and female reproductive organs like tiny palm trees. The body of the thing wrapped the drops of sperm with its leaves, like a fixed claw in an arcade game machine.

The reproductive organ of primitive plants is a design inspiration for precise pipettes.

Scientists have relied on that design to create a plastic pipette that can take and accurately transfer water, according to a report by researchers in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface on March 14.

Typically, the reproductive organ of the umbrella-shaped moss (Marchantia polymorpha) captures sperm droplets beneath their leaves around the trunk. But the researchers turned the umbrella top up and attached it to a needle so it looked like a broom instead. The re-arranged moss-shaped device can hold a drop of water when immersed in water. Tilting in the right angle, the drop will fall out.

Study co-author Hirofumi Wada, a physicist at the Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu, Japan, said that unlike traditional pipettes that collect liquid by suction, the moss straws rely on the surface tension of the water to keep the drop of water. Wada and colleagues printed 3D plastic structures - transforming the general shape, diameter and number of leaves to adjust the amount of water the device could take. Increasing the length of the leaf so that the spherical water intake unit allows it to take more water, up to 1cm in diameter.

According to Wada, the invention may not replace practical pipettes used in research laboratories around the world, but may be a low-cost alternative to education.