Week 8

It’s been a big 7 days for the sunflower competition, with the plants growing an average of over 21 mm/day over the last week! Eilidh and Louis still sit atop the leader board but their spot is being seriously threatened by the team of Iain, Rob, and Liam. In fact, Iain et al. have had the highest growth rate the past two weeks (37.14 mm/d this week). When compared to that of Eilidh and Louis (34.29 mm/d), it is reasonable to expect that we may have a new leader a week from now.

Among the lowest growth rates this week were the team of Gemma and Adam (8.57mm/d) and Natalie (also 8.57mm/d). Saddest of all, however, was Shaun, who actually managed a negative growth rate (-1.43 mm/d), probably owing to the amputation of the dead and gangrenous section at the top of his plant.

Interestingly, growth rate shows a strong linear relationship with size:

A special mention goes out to Nick, whose plant showed the highest growth rate for its size (i.e. showed the largest positive residual… this contest is being run by a bunch of nerdy scientists, remember). At the other extreme is Sunny, whose plant showed the lowest growth rate for its size (other than a certain plant that was surgically altered). Time to step up the watering, Sunny!

Also, we've received a pic of the sole entry from the vet school from Matt. It looks as though he's the first to utilize the "anchor to a wall with rope" technique. Lookin' good!:

Here are the scores as of June 22, 2011. Special shout-out to Winnie Boner and Nick Beevers for help with the measurements this week, and Donald Reid and Ashley LeVin Last week. The plants are getting so big now that measuring is a 3 person job!:

Adam/Gemma	700
Amy/Lyndsey	1230
Caroline	940
Donald	1120
Eilidh/Louis	1470
Eliza/Vic	1100
Emma/Leoni	800
Florence/Roger	1370
George/Karen	0
Iain/Rob/Liam	1440
Justyna	910
Lesley	930
Matt	970
Natalie	520
Nick	1090
Rob	1030
Roman	990
Shaun	590
Sunny	1040
Willie	930
Zara	1050