Another week chugs mercifully to a close and hark! the satisfying ping as your Planet Science newsletter hits your Inbox. This week we’ve scary bugs, a cerebral read and a brief insight into the link between a tractor and your favourite Quattro Stagione.  There’s food for thought.

The line-up this week:

1. A Spot of Agri-Culture: going to seed?
2. Stump the Scientist: hurricanes and big stingers
3. Activity of the Week: Skewered
4. Mouses at the Ready
5. Noticeboard: FYI
6. Recommended websites of the week
7. The Winners’ Enclosure
8. Joke of the Week

When was the last time you stared at your plate of grub and thought ‘Now where does all this come from?’ And we don’t just mean the local supermarket.  Well this year is The Year of Food and Farming. It’s time to start eating healthily and consider taking a trip into the countryside to see where it all happens.  So over to our Essex farmer Guy Smith, author of the fabulous FREE booklet ‘Farm, Food and Countryside’ to give us a snapshot of what’s habaaaaning this month.

			Just as for school children and teachers, the new year for the farmer starts in the autumn. The farmer has harvested his crops in the summer during the school summer break and now he prepares his cleared fields for seeding. The farming term for putting seeds in the ground is “drilling”. Having created a “seed-bed” with ploughs and cultivators, seeds are carefully placed in the soil. The seeds need to be spaced evenly and at the right density. This optimises the uptake of the things a plant needs to grow (rain, sunshine and fertiliser) when the seed starts to sprout and turn into a green seedling. This is a bit like designing a class-room. Just as we need to put the right amount of students into a class room of a certain size and to space them out evenly so they have enough room to thrive, a farmer needs to put the right amounts of seeds into field. This involves a bit of maths for the farmer. He knows that one kilo of seed will have 100,000 seeds. He also knows that on every square metre of his field he wants 100 plants and he knows 100 seeds weigh 4 grammes. How many kilos of seed does he need to put on one hectare? (That’s 10,000 square metres). Is it 4 kilos, 40 kilos, or 400 kilos? Send us the right answer and you could win a packet of seeds from Garden Organic, the leading charity dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food. Simply email us with your correct answer and your name and address, and the words SEEDY RESPONSE in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk. The winner will be picked at random on Thursday 11 October at 5pm. The farmer doesn’t do all his drilling in the autumn. He only drills crops such as wheat and oilseed rape which he knows won’t be killed in the cold of the winter. Other plants such as potatoes and sugar beet are not sown until the spring because they won’t survive frosty weather. Wheat grows through the winter and spring and is finally harvested in the summer. One wheat seed sown in the autumn will grow into a plant that will give 60 grains back. This means from one hectare he will get about 7 to 8 tonnes per hectare.  The farmer delivers the grains to the miller who turns them into flour. Children usually recognise that wheat goes to make things like bread or Weetabix, but a good challenge for them is to get them to identify where the wheat is in a pizza, or an apple pie. When he has harvested the crop he starts the process all over again. Next month we’ll look at what the livestock farmer gets up to in the autumn. Here’s a clue, it also involves seeds and life cycles...

Thanks for that, Guy. We’re just off to study the ingredients in our Aunt Bessie’s Bramley Pie.

Alas no takers yet for Sarah who asked

‘If the Coriolis effect affects the direction in which large things like
hurricanes turn, in which direction would a hurricane spin on the equator?
Or what would happen if one started south of the equator and moved
northwards above it?’

However we do have an answer for Bryan Soutar who asked if we could identify the bug pictured. Incidentally it was exactly 2 inches long from head to tip of sting.

Simon Lampitt says

“It looks very much like a Giant Woodwasp (Urocerus gigas L.). There are several types of woodwasp in the UK. I think most of the varieties habitate in my back garden. Looks like a wasp, but does not sting you like the grumpy normal wasp, not to be confused with the now more aggressive euro wasp, which is much larger than the uk wasp........and grumpier too.”

Peter Levitt agrees

“I'm fairly sure it is a Greater Horntail - Uroceridae - the Woodwasp. Long ovipositor in female used to leave the egg in tree bark and then the larva bores into the tree. I used my 1962 copy of the Observer’s Book of Insects for this. ”

Yerk. We’re pleased there are none lurking in the Planet Science office at any rate. Thanks Simon and Peter, on this occasion the scientist was NOT stumped!

Lights! Camera action Roll ‘em! It’s time for another entertaining clip from the Planet Scicast site. Have a gander at the Skewered film.  And if you want to know how it’s done, we’ve given you the full instructions below.  But be careful there is a possible stabbing risk.

Skewered

You will need:

• One plastic bag, a ziplock or one that you can hold tightly shut
• Wooden skewers, or sharp pencils
• Water

What to do:

1. Fill the bag with water and seal or hold it shut.  Leave some air at the top.
2. Hold the bag by the top.  Do this over a sink, outside, or over an unsuspecting friend
3. Push a skewer into and through the bag, leaving them in place.  You might need to practice, driving it in firmly and carefully and try not to wiggle the skewer too much.
4. Keep adding as many skewers as you can. 

What’s going on?

The plastic bag is made of polymers.  Polymers are long chains of molecules, all linked together.  When the skewer pierces the bag, these polymer chains move and stretch around the skewer.  The result is that the plastic bag forms a light seal around the hole that the skewer has made.  As long as the skewer stays in place the water is sealed in the bag.

Special safety advice

You are dealing with sharp sticks so be careful not to stab yourself. Stab only the bag.

This activity is on Planet Scicast. Keep checking back for new films and how about submitting one of your own?

Are you in the mood for some serious reading?  If so, this could be the book for you.  Four Laws that Drive the Universe by Peter Atkins (Oxford University Press). The laws of thermodynamics drive everything that happens in the universe. From the Zeroth Law to the Third Law, he introduces the fascinating concept of entropy, and how it not only explains why your desk tends to get messier, but also how its unstoppable rise constitutes the engine of the universe.

If you’d like to win it then email us with your name and address, and the words FOUR LAWS in the subject line, to planet-science.news@nesta.org.uk.

The draw will take place at 5pm on Wednesday 26th September.

In the spirit of all things farming we thought this week we’d bring you a topical website. The Farmers Weekly is embarking on a series of activities to try and re-connect schoolchildren with where their food comes from. The result is the Kids Connect Campaign.

Did you know that one hectare of oilseed rape – the crop with yellow flowers - could produce enough biodiesel to power a family car 12,000 miles? Or that male ducks can’t quack? You do now! Find out more in the Facts about Farming section. Plus you can Find a Farmer if you are planning any visits to a farm. And if you’re really stuck then you can always Ask a question.  Plus dip into the Kids Connect Blog for a child’s view on life in farming.