The Point

Last updated: 27 June 2022.

Spacebound Ape's Big Science Quiz

 

 

Sit up, boys and girls! Have you been paying attention?  

Are you 'au fait' with the latest scientific developments?  Or don't you know your bunsen burner from your Vasimir Plasma Engine, your Singularity from your Steady State? 

Culled from various rigorously researched sources,  take Spacebound Ape's 'Big Science' Quiz - and find out whether you're an 'A' student or a 'could try harder' in the world's most important and fastest changing discipline.

 

1) Scientists at CERN recently confirmed the discovery of a fundamental particle whose existence was first theorised 4 decades ago. The name of the particle and the physicist who theorised its existence is

a. The Higgs Boson; Sir Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University    b. The Up Quark; Professor Richard Feynman     c. The Mass Particle; Professor Lawrence Krauss     d) What's CERN?

 

2) A natural gravitational engine is currently orbiting the Earth with massive potential for renewable energy creation through transfer of its gravitational energy into directional kinetic energy in a soluble medium covering two-thirds of the planet's surface. The better known name of this engine and its potential form of renewable power are:

a. The Moon; tidal power    b. The international space station; thermo-solar heat dump   c. Kepler; photovoltaic laser    d. You're just making stuff up.

 

3) The largest body of liquid water in our solar system is 

a. The Europan Ocean    b. The Pacific Ocean     c. The Atlantic Ocean     d. I've got no notion

 

4) Some scientists say there is a 15% chance that life still exists on Mars. However, they also say that such life, if it exists, is likely to be:

a) microbial     b) microscopic    c) microcephalic     d) awfy wee

 

5) All plant life on Earth takes in carbon dioxide, and using light and chlorophyl, breaks it down into sugars for food, and oxygen, which is expelled back into the atmosphere. This process is known as

 

a) photosynthesis     b) photogenesis       c) photo dioxification     d) photoshop

 

6)    This chap is:

a) Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University    b) ubiquitous    c) a dreamboat    d) stoned

 

7) Water is often referred to as H2O. This is because:

a) one atom of hydrogen bonds with two atoms of oxygen to form the water molecule   b) two atoms of hydrogen bond with one atom of oxygen to form the water molecule   c) two atoms of hydrogen bond with two atoms of oxygen to make the water molecule    d) International branding rights owned by Coca Cola

 

8)      This computer generated image is known as:

a. The Mandelbrot set    b) the Ernest Mandel set   c) the Mandelson set    d) freaky wallpaper, man

 

9)  Richard Dawkin's seminal work 'The Selfish Gene' is principally an attempt to account, in Darwinian terms, for

a) altruism and co-operation in species  b) selfishness in species   c) the digger wasp   d) the rise of Thatcherism

 

10) Gerald Edelman won the Nobel Prize for dscovering the inner workings of the immune system, but is better known now for his studies in neuroscience. His theory of how the brain gives rise consciousness is known as:

a) the theory of neuronal group selection   b) topobiology     c) synaptic determinism     d) diabetic interialism

 

11) How many men have walked on the moon?

a) 12      b) 6      c) 12, (and half of them were of Scottish ancestry, forward tae independence, ya bass!!)    d) None, it was all faked on a backset lot in LA, just like that film.

 

12) Most recently, a Brazilian scientist demonstrated that two rats seperated by thousands of kilometres could communicate with one another using only their own electrical brian activity, electrodes and standard digital communication. This represents:

a) positive proof that direct organic/silicon interface in intelligent systems is possible  b) final confirmation to anyone with a scooby that the so-called mind-body problem is solved conclusively on the monist side  c) terrible abuse and torture by so-called 'scientists' against our animal brethren   d) the end of the world as we know it.

 

Interpeting your results, (using strict scientific methodology, of course)

Mostly a's - Welcome to the program!

Mostly b' and some a's - There's hope for you yet.

Mostly b's  - Start reading New Scientist and watching Horizon immediately

Mostly c's - ''Vell we cannot all be first violeners in der orchsestra, some of us have to push der vind through the trombone!'

Mostly' d's - Er...it may just be that you have a keen sense of humour.