Welcome to the latest installment of the Friday quiz! Science museums and unusually-named animals are among this week’s morsels. There are fifteen marks available – can you reach double figures?
Round 1 – Animal Etymology
Some animals have very curious names – can you choose the correct derivation of each of these names from the choices given?
1. Secretary bird:
(a) It has plumes protruding from its head, making it resemble a secretary with a pen behind their ear.
(b) Its tall, upright posture and hooked bill made it resemble the aquiline figure of the secretary of George II, who was a personal friend of the bird’s British discoverer.
(c) It is known for secreting items of food in various places around its territory so that it always has a food source nearby.
2. Monkfish:
(a) Outside the breeding season, the males of the species congregate in large male-only communities, analogous to a monastery.
(b) They have two fins underneath their body which frequently clap together, giving them appearance of being in prayer.
(c) The fish’s large head supposedly resembles a that of a hooded monk.
3. Aha ha (an Australian wasp species):
(a) An aboriginal word meaning something like “nasty sting”.
(b) It’s makes a buzzing sound reminiscent of an exclamation of laughter
(c) When the entomologist who named it first received a package of specimens he exclaimed “Aha!”
Round 2 – A to Z
It’s the second instalment of our scientific A to Z. This week, it’s D to F.
1. What D is the scientist who gives his name to the effect produced when a source of waves moves relative to an observer, causing a change in frequency – as can be experienced, for instance, in the changing pitch of an ambulence siren, as it approaches and then passes you?
2. What E is the general name for biological molecules that catalyse chemical reactions?
3. What F is the SI derived unit of capacitance?
Round 3 – The Picture Round
In this week’s picture round, you’ll see pictures of science-themed museums from various places around the world – you simply have to name the city that each building can be found in.
1.
{credit}Christine Matthews{/credit}
2.
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3.
(Hint: this is the world’s largest museum of technology and science, and the river in the picture is the Isar.)
{credit}Max-k muc{/credit}
Round 4 – Traffic Lights
Yep, traffic lights. All will become clear when you read the questions…
1. Which element, atomic number 37, derives its name from a Latin word for dark red?
2. Which creature produces ambergris?
3. What is the name of the green pigment found in plants, vital for photosynthesis, and giving leaves (and other plant parts) their green colour?
Round 5 – Last Things Last
For the last round of this week, questions about other scientific “lasts”.
1. Who was the last man to walk on the moon?
2. Once one of the most abundant birds in the world, the last surviving member of which species died in 1914 in Cincinnati zoo?
3. Who was the last US president to have a science degree (a non-honorary one)?
Answers, as always, will appear on Monday. Wishing all our readers a great weekend!
This week’s answers as follows:
Round 1 – Animal Etymology
1. (a) It has plumes protruding from its head, making it resemble a secretary with a pen behind their ear.
2. (c) The fish’s large head supposedly resembles a that of a hooded monk.
3. (c) When the entomologist who named it first received a package of specimens he exclaimed “Aha!” (yes, really)
Round 2 – A to Z
1. This is the Doppler effect.
2. These handy molecules are enzymes.
3. Capacitance is measured in Farads.
Round 3 – The Picture Round
1. If you didn’t know then the taxi in the bottom right might have helped – this is the Science Museum in London.
2. Another taxi clue in this, on the bottom left this time – this is the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
3. Finally, this is the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Round 4 – Traffic Lights
1. This is Rubidium.
2. Ambergris comes from the digestive system of a sperm whale.
3. Cholorphyll is what makes the grass green.
Round 5 – Last Things Last
1. Everyone remembers Neil Armstrong being the first – not quite so many know that Eugene Cernan was the last man on the moon.
2. This was the passenger pigeon, which went from a population of several billion to zero thanks to habitat destruction and human hunting on a massive scale. Way to go, humans!
3. The last scientist with a science degree was Jimmy Carter, who graduated with a BSc from the US Naval Academy. You have to go back to Herbert Hoover, with a geology degree, for the last one before him.