Welcome along, Explorer. It's the end of 2025. So for one last time this year, let's have an adventure around the universe, shall we? My name's Dan. This is a brand new fun kid science midweekly. This is where we search out all of those science secrets lurking, scampering through the solar system.

And it's a question special.

So if you ever have anything science that you want answered, make sure you leave it as a voice note on the free Fun Kids app.

You can do that at FunKidsLive.com 2.

We got one of those to start from Herbie.

Hi, Dan.

My name is Herbie and I live in Coimble.

And my question is, do plants have muscles? Bye.

Thank you, Herbie. Do plants have muscles? No, they don't. Next question.

No, I'm joking. Let's go into it a bit more, shall we? Herbie, no, they don't. They have no muscles,

but they can still move.

They do that by changing the amount of water that's in their cells. So they might fill one part of their cell up with water, which means there's less water in other parts of them.

So one side might fill up, might become stiff, which changes the way it leans and points, it twists and moves, and that's how sunflowers follow the sun through a day.

Also, different parts and sides of a plant can grow faster than other sides, which is how roots grow downwards. It's how ivy clambers and climbs up buildings.

Some plants even have special movement cells like a Venus flytrap. You know that really mean

looking one from a strange sci-fi horror movie where it's got this huge jaw and it snaps shut.

Well, it does that when the pressure in its mouth changes, it's evolved.

So when a fly gets in there, the amount of air is a bit different.

And when it centers that, it snaps shut.

So they don't have muscles like we do that contract, that relax, that flex,

but they use different ways of growing and making pressure to move, Herbie.

Thank you for the question.

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