As the snow falls around London, it’s time for the winter warmer that is the Friday quiz. Anagrams, charades and, of course, the usual trivia questions all lie in store today.

Round 1 – Scientific Laws

You know you’ve made it in the world of science when you get to have a law named after you.

1. Whose law states that the absolute pressure of a gas is inversely proprtional to its volume, assuming its temperature remains constant within a closed system?
2. The ‘Law of Segregation’ and the ‘Law of Independent Assortment’ are the two laws of which scientist?
3. Which German physicist devised his eponymous law in a 1926 paper, eventually leading to his winning of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954 (having been nominated many years earlier by Einstein)?

Continue reading →

Happy New Year, quizzers! Welcome to the first quiz of 2013.

 Round 1 – What’s in a Name?

A round about names, naming and namesakes.

1. What is the only element to be named after a scientist who was still alive at the time of the naming?
2. What was the name given to the 5000 year old “iceman” found in the Tyrolean Alps in 1991, a named shared by a DJ who became a one-hit wonder ten years later with a song that became particularly (some would say irritatingly) popular with fans at the 2002 World Cup?
3. In 2005, scientists at Cornell University made headlines when they named three new species of slime-mold beetle after what three prominent people?

 Round 2 – Moons

1. Phobos is one of the two moons of Mars – what is the other?
2. The moons of which planet are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope?
3. Which moon of the solar system was named after the mythical cup-bearer of the Greek Gods? Continue reading →

Welcome to the last Friday quiz of 2012! And how else could we welcome in the holiday season but with a quiz devoted to all things Christmassy? Get yourself some mulled wine and have a go at these seasonal searchers:

Round 1 – HydrogenOxygen HydrogenOxygen HydrogenOxygen!

 As the more perceptive of you may have worked out from the title of the round, some Christmas/science crossover questions:

1. Which famous scientist was born on Christmas Day in 1642?
2. What is the more common name of the blood disorder sometimes known as Christmas disease?
3. The Pōhutukawa is known for blossoming with brilliant red flowers in late December, leading to its nickname of the “Christmas tree” in its native country. What is its native country?

Round 2 – Christmas songs

Everyone loves a good singsong at Christmas – can you work out what these festive songs are from the rather more scientific and/or technical descriptions of their events provided here?

1. A member of the species Rangifer tarandus shows possible signs of Rhinophyma, the condition seemingly remaining untreated.
2. Sternutation brought on by incompletely combusted hydrocarbons.
3. Ilex aquifolium and an unspecified member of the Hedera genus each reach a state of maturity.

Round 3 – Charades

For many of us, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a slightly tipsy post-Christmas dinner game of charades, so for this week’s picture round, three charade-style clues to the names of famous scientists. Can you work out who are depicted here?

1.

{credit}Jonathan G Meath / Jonathan Zander / Tender Rosebud{/credit}

2.

3.

{credit}Oli Gill / Public domain / 1sttimeright{/credit}

Round 4 – The Royal Institution Christmas lectures

The Royal Institution Christmas lectures have been a staple of the scientific year for almost two hundred years now and, since 1966, have also a been a staple of festive TV for the more discerning viewer. It would seem remiss to have a Christmas science quiz without a mention of them.

1. Who created the concept of the lectures in 1825 and went on to present them a record nineteen times over the next 35 years?
2. Frank Whittle, who presented the 1954 lectures, entitled ‘The Story of Petroleum’, is best known for what invention?
3. Which American astronomer and populariser of science presented the 1977 series, entitled “The Planets”?

Round 5 – Christmas presents

See if you can unwrap the answers from this lot…

1. What famous Christmas present could be described as “the aromatic oleoresin of a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora”?
2. If a person close to me gives me, for the first time, 3 Branta leucopsis, and 3 Anser brachyrhynchus, all of which are displaying oviparous qualities, then what day is it?
3. What is the only element in the periodic table which has no letters in common with the phrase “CHRISTMAS PRESENT”?

Good luck, have fun, and we’ll be back with the answers early in 2013. Until then, have a very happy holiday season and an even better new year.

It’s almost the end of 2012, and much has happened in the world of science. How memorable was it for you? Take our review of the year quiz and find out…

Round 1 – Events

1. It had only been seen six times previously – in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and 2004 – but was observable this year from 5-6 June, and will not now be seen again until 2117. What?
2. Earlier this year, Nature published a paper detailing the discovery in northeastern China of fossils of gigantic tyrannosauroid dinosaurs which boasted what unusual feature – the largest ever dinosaurs to be discovered with this feature?
3. The centenary of the birth of which mathematician was celebrated this year, including on the cover of Nature?
4. Described in some quarters as the “Russian Nobel”, and with prizes of a whopping $3 million per recipient, billionaire investor Yuri Milner this year inaugurated a prize that celebrates work in which specific field of science?
5. The mammoth project to describe all the functional elements inscribed in the human genome culminated this year with the simultaneous publication of 30 different papers (6 of them in Nature) – what was the name of this project? Continue reading →

Welcome to the Friday quiz! There was a week’s hiatus last week, but normal service will now be resumed. Some testing trivia for you to tackle today, but first a nice gentle start with some geography questions that a high school student could answer.

Round 1 – High School Geography

Every year in the US, National Geographic magazine organises the National Geographic Bee – a competition testing the geographical knowledge of school pupils across the nation. The following questions were all the final (and thus, thanks to the format, winning) questions asked in past years’ events. How does your knowledge compare to that of the finest geographical minds in American schools?

1.  Mount Erebus is a volcano on which continent?
2.  What type of landform is commonly associated with orographic precipitation?
3.  The condition characterized by unusually cold ocean temperature in the equatorial region of the eastern Pacific Ocean is known by what Spanish name? Continue reading →

The weekend’s almost here so it’s Friday quiz time again. Among today’s offerings are spelling with elements and a look at some ideas that didn’t quite stand the test of time. But first, a few questions about some of the great research hubs around the world:

Round 1 – Scientific Institutions

1. The Sanger Institute, funded by the Wellcome Trust and based in Cambridgeshire in the UK, carries out research in what specific field of science?
2. Originally formed in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, and recognised as one of the world-leading research bodies, this association of German research institutes is today named after which man?
3. The particle accelerator laboratory Fermilab is found close to which major US city? Continue reading →

After a week off (did you miss us?), it’s Friday quiz time again – this week, there’s vaccines, cunningly-disguised elements and animal artistry among the quizzical challenges on offer. But first up, a look at the many ingenious ways animals are able to communicate with each other.

Round 1 – Animal Communication

Who needs Skype when you can perform a waggle dance?

1. Which form of animal communication is used by species such as the common shrew, the vagrant shrew and the black-nest swiftlet but is most commonly associated with bats and whales?
2. What kind of creatures perform “waggle dances” to alert other members of their colony to the location of useful resources?
3. What was the name, based on a pun on the name of a famed linguist, given to the chimpanzee at the centre of a famous 1970s experiment, in which he was allegedly taught to use sign language to express a variety of thoughts and desires? Continue reading →

Welcome to another Friday quiz, and, like an ideal conference, this week’s offering starts off with highbrow questions about scientific discovery and philosophy before descending into puerile jokes and puzzles by the time we get to the end.

Round 1 – A to Z

We’ll warm up this week with some more science A to Z, and we’re now up to letters M – O.

1. What M is the two-word term, first coined by Julian Huxley in the title of a 1942 book, used to describe the union of Darwinian natural selection, Mendelian genetics, and other related ideas  to form a cohesive account of evolution?
2. What N is the type of astronomical entity that results from the gravitational collapse of a massive star during certain types of supernova event?
3. What O is the SI unit of electrical resistance? Continue reading →

Welcome to another round of Friday quizzing. And with Halloween just around the corner, what further excuse is needed to have a quiz devoted to all things ghoulish and gory…

Round 1 – Pumpkins, parties and pyrotechnics

We kick off by looking at some Halloween staples through a scientific lens (sort of)…

1.  In an attempt to get into this year’s Famous Scientists’ Halloween Ball, I dressed up as, logically enough, a famous scientist in order to blend in. I made myself up to look like a handsome man (there was a lot of make-up involved) from the early 19^th century, and I carried with me some of my discoveries, including sodium, potassium and magnesium, and my most famous invention, a safety lamp in which the flame is enclosed inside a mesh screen. Who did I dress up as?
2. As well as being excellent for carving into scary or amusing faces, another important attribute of pumpkins is that they are monoecious. What does monoecious mean?
3. You are in attendance at a Halloween bonfire and find a bit of metal on the ground. You toss it onto the fire, and it burns with a bright red flame. What metal could this have been? Continue reading →

Welcome once again to the Friday quiz. A mixed bag of trivia this week, along with the usual picture round – but first, it’s time for the news and weather…

Round 1 – News

Here are the headlines this week…

1. Why have the duos of Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland, Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka, and Sir John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka all been in the news recently?
2. As detailed in a recent report in Nature, research done in Copenhagen, Denmark and Perth, Australia suggests that what important substance has a half life of approximately 521 years?
3. As detailed in another recent Nature news report, German geoscientists believe they may have solved the mystery of the curious scarcity of which noble gas in the Earth’s atmosphere? Continue reading →