Like most (experimental) labs, we struggled to keep up with publishing through the pandemic, with lockdowns and university closures making it challenging to keep the research going smoothly. As a result, we published more review papers and commentaries, and fewer research papers than we would like (and normally do). Today, the first proper data paper in quite a while was finally published – can’t say how good that feels! And it’s Anne‘s first research paper from her PhD – even better! Her study on the mechanics underlying the springboard prey capture mechanisms of tropical Nepenthes gracilis pitcher plants already won her a poster prize at the SEB conference in Montpellier last month, and now it’s also out as a shiny research paper. For this study, Anne stuck N. gracilis pitchers in a micro-CT scanner and imaged them with different lid positions – thereby visualizing the deformation of the pitcher during a drop impact-induced ‘strike’. Surprisingly, the spring turned out to be far more complex than we had thought – and it’s direction-dependent as well!  Published open access in Biology Letters, you should not miss giving it a read!