It’s Friday, which means it’s once again time to pull on your trivia tracksuit, and have a go at the Friday quiz…
Round 1 – Science in London
1. John Krebs, Marcus du Sautoy, Sue Hartley and Bruce Hood are among the more recent presenters of which annual lecture series?
2. English physician John Snow famously investigated, and discovered the cause of, an outbreak of what disease in Soho in 1854?
3. Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, Max Planck and, most recently, Dan McKenzie are among the recipients of which annual prize awarded by the Royal Society?
Round 2 – Connections
What is the connection between:
1. Frederick Sanger, Marie Curie and John Bardeen (and no others)?
2. Bison, Gorilla, Lynx, Magpie, Hyena, Red Fox, and Black Rat (and many others)?
3. A sub-alpine mountain range spanning France and Switzerland, chalk, a county in south west England and a Celtic tribe (and a few others)?
Round 3 – Olympics Crossover Redux
Today’s picture round has a vaguely Olympian theme, at least. Below are pictures of birds, each of which is the official national bird of a country competing in the Olympics. We’ll give you the name of the country in question – can you name the birds?
1. Angola
2. Hungary
3. Guyana
Round 4 – Scientific firsts
1. John Flamsteed was the first man to be appointed to what position?
2. Who was the first person to use the term “survival of the fittest” in reference to evolution?
3. Who was the first person to discover and describe infrared radiation?
Round 5 – Robert Boyle’s wish list
In the 1660s, Robert Boyle drew up a wish list of what he thought were some of the most vital and pressing problems for science to solve in the years to come. Which of the items below are genuine items from Boyle’s wish list, and which have we made up?
- A Mightily-Powered Horse that may Transport us at Great Speeds across the Countrie.
- The Emulating of Fish without Engines by Custome and Education only.
- Varnishes perfumable by Rubbing.
- The Invention of Beer and Wine Devoid of Hange-over-bringing Properties
- Potent Druggs to alter or Exalt Imagination, Waking, Memory, and other functions, and appease pain, procure innocent sleep, harmless dreams, etc.
- The Ability to Know the Minde of an Animal, and to Converse with it as if in a Taverne.
- Great Strength and Agility of Body exemplify’d by that of Frantick Epileptick and Hystericall persons.
Good luck, no cheating on Google, and answers will be up as always on Monday…
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Wow I had no idea what any of those answers were. I did however guess correctly on a few of the Robert Boyle questions but they were just lucky guesses so I don’t count them. I just wanted to thank you for this post it pushed my mind in new directions and I always enjoy that kind of learning.
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Answers as follows:
Round 1 – Science in London
1. These people have all delivered the Royal Institution Christmas lectures.
2. It was from studying the outbreak in Soho that John Snow became the first person to work out that cholera is a water-borne disease.
3. These people are all recipients of the prestigious Copley Medal.
Round 2 – Links
A little bit of lateral thinking required in this one, perhaps.
1. These are the only people to have been awarded two Nobel prizes in scientific categories
2. The scientific names of all these animals is the same name repeated twice – Lynx lynx, Pica pica, Rattus rattus etc.
3. These are all things which have given their names to geological periods – respectively Jurassic, Cretaceous, Devonian and Ordovician
Round 3 – Olympics Crossover Redux
1. It may be the national bird of Angola, but you can see it in various places around the UK too – it’s a Peregrine Falcon
2. It’s the world’s heaviest flying bird, the Great Bustard
3. The rather distinctive Hoatzin
Round 4 – Firsts
1. Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal
2. Herbert Spencer was the first chap to come up with “survival of the fittest”
3. Better known for discovering Uranus, clever William Herschel also discovered infrared radiation.
Round 5 – Robert Boyle’s wish list
Admittedly a fair bit of guesswork was required for this one. Three of the items were entirely made up, and they were as follows:
A Mightily-Powered Horse that may Transport us at Great Speeds across the Countrie.
The Invention of Beer and Wine Devoid of Hange-over-bringing Properties
The Ability to Know the Minde of an Animal, and to Converse with it as if in a Taverne.
The rest were all genuine entries on Boyle’s list. A very fine list it is too – you can see the rest of it here: https://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2010/08/27/robert-boyle-list/
More quizzing at the usual time on Friday…