RS Holiday Quiz Social 2018 The correct answers are red and bold. Round 1 1. Which of these songs stellar songs has been played the farthest from the Earth?
a. Space Oddity – David Bowie b. Star Man - David Bowie c. Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles d. Dark was the night, cold was the ground - Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson’s song was included on the Voyager space craft. You can find the full track list here https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the- record/music/. Carl Sagan allegedly wanted to include the Beatles iconic song, but could not agree licensing.
2. What molecule is this?
a. Cinnamon b. Alcohol c. Nutmeg d. Sugar
Specifically, this is cinnamaldehyde, which is the compound that gives cinnamon its flavour/fragrance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamaldehyde
3. Guess the Fellow This absolute unit is best known for the thermodynamic temperature scale. He was born in Belfast and was knighted by Queen Victoria.
a. James Prescott Joule b. Lord Kelvin c. Lord Raleigh d. Thomas Andrews
4. The Fields Medal was awarded to how many mathematicians this year?
a. 0 b. 3 c. 4 d. 5
The Fields medal, which some think of as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics, is awarded to top Mathematicians under the age of 40. The award is given to up to four mathematicians https://www.mathunion.org/imu-awards/fields-medal/fields-medals- 2018
5. Scientists completed the survey of the genome sequence of which animal in July 2018?
a. Koala b. Fox c. Duck d. Wolf
Read more here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0153-5
Round 2
6. Which country has won the most Nobel Prizes for physics?
a. Germany b. United States c. France d. United Kingdom The answer is https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-nobel- laureates-in-the-field-of-physics.html
7. Which of these is not a standard unit of inductance?
a. The Kelvin b. The Becquerel c. The Tesla d. The Einstein Einstein does not have a unit named in his honour, though many International System of Units are named for scientists who were prominent in their discovery or quantification. The Kelvin is a measure of temperature named for Lord Kelvin. The Becquerel is a measure of radiation, named for the Curies’ collaborator, Henri Becquerel. The Tesla measures magnetic flux density. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units
2
8. What molecule is this?
a. Cinnamon b. Alcohol c. Nutmeg d. Sugar To be honest this is Myristicin, a compound that is present in the essential oil of nutmeg. Interestingly it is also in anise, parsley and dill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristicin
9. Guess the fellow She is a Nobel laureate and crystallographer and she was able to decipher the structure of insulin. Her portrait has pride of place in our President’s office.
a. Muriel Robertson b. Sylvia Tait c. Ruth Sanger d. Dorothy Hodgkin
3
10. The kilogram was redefined in November of this year, which of these SI units was not also redefined?
a. Ampere b. Second c. Mole d. Kelvin The Second was redefined in 1976 as the time it takes an atom of Cesium-133 to vibrate 9,192,631,770 times. Here is a very interesting article on this https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/science/kilogram-physics-measurement.html
Round 3
11. What comes next in this sequence Yocto atto pico …?
a. Nano b. Micro c. Femto d. Zepto The sequence is every other measurement below micro in the metric system. So: yocto, zepto, atto, femto, pico, nano, micro
12. What molecule is this?
a. Cinnamon b. Alcohol c. Nutmeg d. Sugar
13. Which animal is also known as Bufo bufo?
a. Toad b. Emu c. Owl d. Crocodile This is an example of a Tautonym, where an animal’s species and genus have the same word.
14. Which Fellow’s work features on the cover of the album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Division?
a. Albert Einstein b. Ernest Rutherford c. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
4
d. Benjamin Franklin
15. Tautonyms are scientific (taxon) names where the same word is used for both the genus and the species, for example the red fox is vulpes vulpes. Which of these not a real tautonym?
a. Lynx Lynx b. Gulo Gulo c. Sinomicrurus Sinomicrurus d. Chinchilla Chinchilla The Lynx Lynx is the Eurasian Lynx; Gulo Gulo is the wolverine and Chinchilla Chinchilla is a short-tailed chinchilla native to South America. Sinomicrurus is a genus of venomous elapid snake. Discover more tautonyms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tautonyms
Round 4
16. Which of these in not the scientific name of a real creature named after a celebrity
a. Agra schwarzeneggeri Erwin, 2002 b. Aptostichus barackobamai Bond, 2012 c. Attenborosaurus Bakker, 1993 d. Papilio Beyonceae, Lessard 2011
Although Beyoncé does have a species named after her, it is not a butterfly, but a Horse fly. Apparently it was the “Unique golden hairs” that inspired the name. The Agra schwarzeneggeri is a Beetle with “bicep-like” middle femora. The Aptostichus barackobamai is a spider. The Attenborosaurus is a plesiosaur. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisms_named_after_famous_people
17. Guess the Fellow
This Fellow is arguably the greatest experimentalist since Faraday. He discovered the concept of radioactive half-life and helped split the atom. a. Paul Nurse b. Ernest Rutherford c. Martin Rees d. Elon Musk
5
18. What molecule is this?
a. Cinnamon b. Alcohol – Ethanol c. Nutmeg d. Sugar
19. A theoretical explanation for fracturing that has long evaded leading thinkers, including Richard Feynman, has been solved by scientists from MIT in August 2018 What material did they research?
a. Concrete b. Spaghetti c. Wood d. Plastic e. Read more about this cracking discovery http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-mathematicians- solve-age-old-spaghetti-mystery-0813
20. Which of these Fellows celebrated the centenary of their election to the Society this year (2018)?
a. Herbert Jackson b. Charles Tate Regan c. Srinivasa Ramanujan d. James Hartley Ashworth
6