Have you ever driven past a field of sunflowers and seen them all facing the same direction?  They seem to follow the sun.  But how do they do it?  I saw a fascinating story this week about scientists who finally figured out the mechanism for growth that allows the sunflowers to move with the sun during the day and return to facing east overnight.  Once they are mature, they stop moving and always face east, which allows their flowers to warm up faster, attracting more pollinators.  Bees like warm flowers; who knew?

You can read and hear about this at NPR here and at the Los Angeles Times here.

sunflower field nd