EMMA: We’ve got to choose a topic for our experiment, haven’t we, Jack? Were you thinking of something to do with seeds?
JACK: That’s right. I thought we could look at seed germination – how a seed begins to grow.
EMMA: OK. Any particular reason? I know you’re hoping to work in plant science eventually …
JACK: Yeah, but practically everything we do is going to feed into that. No, there’s an optional module on seed structure and function in the third year that I might do, so I thought it might be useful for that. If I choose that option, I don’t have to do a dissertation module.
EMMA: Good idea.
JACK: Well, I thought for this experiment we could look at the relationship between seed size and the way the seeds are planted. So, we could plant different sized seeds in different ways, and see which grow best.
EMMA: OK. We’d need to allow time for the seeds to come up.
JACK: That should be fine if we start now. A lot of the other possible experiments need quite a bit longer.
EMMA: So that’d make it a good one to choose. And I don’t suppose it’d need much equipment; we’re not doing chemical analysis or anything. Though that’s not really an issue, we’ve got plenty of equipment in the laboratory.
JACK: Yeah. We need to have a word with the tutor if we’re going to go ahead with it though. I’m sure our aim’s OK. It’s not very ambitious but the assignment’s only ten percent of our final mark, isn’t it? But we need to be sure we’re the only ones doing it.
EMMA: Yeah, it’s only five percent actually, but it’d be a bit boring if everyone was doing it.
JACK: Did you read that book on seed germination on our reading list?
EMMA: The one by Graves? I looked through it for my last experiment, though it wasn’t all that relevant there. It would be for this experiment, though. I found it quite hard to follow – lots about the theory, which I hadn’t expected
JACK: Yes, I’d been hoping for something more practical. It does include references to the recent findings on genetically-modified seeds, though.
EMMA: Yes, that was interesting.
JACK: I read an article about seed germination by Lee Hall.
EMMA: About seeds that lie in the ground for ages and only germinate after a fire?
JACK: That’s the one. I knew a bit about it already, but not about this research. His analysis of figures comparing the times of the fires and the proportion of seeds that germinated was done in a lot of detail – very impressive.
EMMA: Was that the article with the illustrations of early stages of plant development? They were very clear.
JACK: I think those diagrams were in another article.
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