The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind Quiz

Answer: Pollen

Pollen is produced by the stamen of plants, and carries the male genetic material required for reproduction. Twelve percent of plants use wind pollination, also called "anemophily" (meaning wind-loving), to transfer pollen through the atmosphere to the pistil of another plant where the male genetic material can fertilise the female genetic material. Pollen grains in the atmosphere can be highly allergy inducing for some people, leading to symptoms of hay fever such as nasal congestion and itchy eyes.

Answer: Chinese high-altitude balloon

Over eight days, the balloon flew from west to east across Alaska, western Canada and the contiguous United States before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina. The incident sparked intense media coverage and intrigue. Initially the US characterised it as a surveillance balloon, while China claimed it was a civilian weather balloon. Ultimately US intelligence reported that they had determined no information was transmitted back to China from the balloon, and the incident seems to be put behind us.

Answer: Windsock

The earliest reports of windsocks trace back to 150 AD Rome and perhaps earlier in Japan, however it is not clear that they functioned as indicators of wind direction or speed. Windsocks for these functions seem to have arisen in the 20th century as the birth of aviation necessitated them.

As per modern FAA standards in the US, windsocks are calibrated to orient themselves to a breeze of at least three knots and to fully extend at winds of 15 knots, with each coloured strip designating intervals of three knots within that range.

Other jurisdictions have slight variations in these standards.

Answer: Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

CFCs are derived from the simple hydrocarbons methane, ethane and propane, with chlorine and fluorine atoms substituting some or all of the hydrogen atoms. As relatively non-toxic chemicals, they were initially adopted to replace more toxic precursors in their applications, however it was found that they catalysed the conversion of ozone into oxygen molecules, depleting the layer of ozone that helps protect the Earth's surface from harmful UV-B radiation.

Despite the global phase out, unauthorised use persists in parts of the world, and CFCs can be stable in the atmosphere for over 100 years, continuing to deplete ozone.

The ozone layer has still not recovered to this day but is projected to recover by the mid 21st century.

Answer: Bushfires

In one of the worst bushfire seasons in living memory, hundreds of fires burned across Australia during that summer, causing hundreds of human deaths, hundreds of millions of animal deaths, over 9000 structures destroyed, and over one billion dollars worth of damage.

A particularly poignant memory for me was seeing burnt eucalyptus leaves raining down on the beach, around 50km from the nearest fire. The fires, and floods that affected the same areas just 18 months later, sparked a significant shift in public discourse around climate change.

Answer: Kite

Interestingly enough, the mathematical shape was named after the flying toy, which often takes the shape defined as a kite. The flying toy was in turn named after the bird, which derived its name from early Indo-European languages. Flying kites have been around for at least 2000 years, with pre-historic depictions of kites as early as 9500 BC in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Answer: Paper airplane

Supported by Nathaniel Erickson and Garrett Jensen who helped with folding the aircraft and test-flight analysis respectively, Ruble and the team practiced for over four months before making the attempt. The design was inspired by hypersonic aerospace vehicles. They took 20 minutes to painstakingly fold a single sheet of 100gsm A4 paper to create the plane.

Answer: Hills Hoist

With patents as early as 1895, there have been multiple designers and iterations of the rotary clothesline that became known as the Hills Hoist in the 20th century. They became an icon of Australian backyards, frequently used by artists in the 1950s and 1960s to evoke suburban life. They were even featured in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Answer: Tumbleweed

Despite their representation in media as cute, lonely wanderers, the famous tumbleweed is actually a noxious invasive species in the US and elsewhere in the world. They can contribute to native plant extinctions and wildfires, they can build up to such a degree they block roads and trap people inside houses, posing a fire hazard, and they can interfere with civil infrastructure and equipment.

Answer: Spiders

A rare and poorly understood phenomenon, this "spider rain" sounds like just another story Australians tell to scare tourists, but I assure you it has happened many times! In the right weather conditions, recently hatched spiderlings will climb as high as they can and fashion a makeshift parachute from their silk.

They are light enough to get picked by the wind in massive swarms and are carried up to hundreds of kilometres away at altitudes up to 6000m. Around 20 such events have been reported in the last century.