Natural History Stop Thief! Who Stole My Hazelnuts? But a Valuable Clue… 25 July 2019 Ian Alexander Scene of the Crime: Someone able to Climb Trees, Carry Nuts, and Crack them Open Swiftly Crime Scene Close-up: Hazelnuts Skilfully Opened, Contents Eaten … we know who the villain is: Grey Squirrel! All’s Well That Ends Well: a Rich Hazelnut Harvest, Still Green and Leafy! If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: despite the record early morning heat (already 26C at 8am, imagine), I at once went out with a sun-hat and picked all the hazelnuts I could find, leaving one or two for the, ah, wildlife. After all, if a Professional Hazel-Eater says it’s Harvest Time, the sensible thing to do is to believe them. A clue, not only of the Inspector Clouseau sort. Hazelnut Cluster Symmetries: you may think hazelnuts come in twos or threes, but they can come in ones, twos, threes, fours, or even fives, making themselves as symmetrical as they can. So, a two means they’re in a line, three in a triangle, four in a tetrahedron…