Lupin roots observed in the act of drinking

Lupins produce colourful blossoms and nutritious beans. Just how these plants draw water has now for the first time been observed in three dimensions by a team at the HZB-BER II neutron source in Berlin. They improved the temporal resolution of neutron tomography more than one-hundred-fold and obtained a detailed 3D image every ten seconds. This ultrafast neutron tomography is suitable as well for analyses of dynamic processes in other materials.