After a week away (hence my quietness), I returned to London to host the Royal institution’s ‘science pub quiz’ – not actually in a pub, but in their rather lovely bar. Here are the questions, minus the picture round, which I’m leaving out for copyright reasons. Happy facting.

Round 2

Science in the news

• 1) In the news this week, the Large Hadron Collider has switched from colliding protons to colliding ions of which element, which has the Latin name plumbum?
• 2) The minister for science gave a talk at the Royal Institution last month. What is his name?
• 3) The debate was chaired by journalist Mark Henderson. For which paper is he the science editor?
• 4) In the news recently, scientists from Germany launched a silicon chip that partially restored which sense?
• 5) Research at the University of Oxford recently found passing a small electrical current through the brain improved what ability?
• 6) Last Monday marked the 115th anniversary of the discovery of what type of radiation?
• 7) Today in 1971 marked the launch of the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor called the 4004. Which company produced it?
• 8) Surgeon Dalia Nield has been facing a libel threat this week for calling into question the efficacy of a cream to enlarge what?
• 9) Haiti is currently suffering an epidemic of which disease, an infection of the small intestine?
• 10) Which rock star recently underwent genetic analysis, revealing he is more likely to experience hallucinations on marijuana and has increased risk of alcohol and cocaine addiction?

Round 3

SIZE to fit in with the Xmas Lectures on ’Size Matters

• 1) How many times bigger is the sun than the earth (in terms of volume)…we’ll give an order of magnitude either way.
• 2) What is the terminal velocity of a hamster (in m/s)? (+/- 5 m/s)
• 3) If Giga is 10^9 and Terra is 10^12, what is 10^15?
• 4) The tallest man is recorded history is Robert Pershing Wadlow. How tall was he in cm? (+/- 10cm)
• 5) The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building. In which country is it located?
• 6) In statistics (hypothesis testing) the size of the test refers to the rate of what, denoted by the symbol alpha?
• 7) The size of what is calculated as 3 x length in inches – 25, in the UK at least…?
• 8) As reported in the news last week, the Tuberous bushcricket has the largest what, in relation to its body size?
• 9) The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s biggest science experiment. How big is the accelerator ring, in km? (+/- 3km)
• 10) Used to measure crystal structures, what unit is 10^-10m?

Round 4

The Science of Booze

• 1) Name the poly-phenol compound, present in red wine, widely reported in the papers, if not many scientific studies, to have anti-ageing properties.
• 2) What is Saccharomyces cerevisiae?
• 3) What is the chemical formula of ethanol, the commonest alcohol found in drinks?
• 4) What ‘ology’ is the science of wine and winemaking?
• 5) In the process of fermentation, yeast converts what to alcohol and carbon dioxide?
• 6) Commonly seen on the side of alcoholic drinks, what does ‘ABV’ stand for?
• 7) Which compound, present in a gin and tonic, famously has anti-malarial properties?
• 8) Dmitri Mendeleev, creator of the Periodic Table, also worked to standardise the composition of which spirit?
• 9) Who or what consumed one third of the alcohol produced in Germany in 1944-45?
• 10) Which was the first alcoholic beverage to be drank on the moon?

Round 5

Classical names

• 1) Kalium is the Latin name for which chemical element, discovered at the Royal Institution?
• 2) Rattus rattus is the latin name for which animal?
• 3) If cows are bovine, what are ovine?
• 4) Ilex is the latin name for which seasonal flowering plant?
• 5) An essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes, C27H46O has a name derived from the Greek meaning ‘solid bile’. What is it?
• 6) The word vaccine derives from the Latin for which animal?
• 7) To what part of the body does the Greek word stethos refer?
• 8) Which scientific organisation has the motto nullius in verba?
• 9) In widespread use in scientific research, what is the animal Drosophila melanogaster better known as?
• 10) What is the full Latin name for the Western Lowland Gorilla?

Round 6

General science

• 1) What is the age of the Earth (in billions of years)? (+/- 1 billion)
• 2) OXO and Tennis for Two are considered to be the world’s first what?
• 3) Oology is the study of what?
• 4) What is the more common name for a cubic decimetre?
• 5) First published on 4 November 1869, what is the world’s most cited interdisciplinary science journal?
• 6) Subject of a recent exhibition at the Tate Britain, Eadweard Muybridge is best known as a pioneer of what?
• 7) What is the name of the first electronic instrument, invented in 1919?
• 8) Who first decribed the effect of a magnetic field on light in 1845?
• 9) What number is sometimes referred to as Archimedes Constant?
• 10) An amalgam is an alloy of what metal?

The next quiz will be sometime in January.