Quiz of the year 2004
1. Sniffer dogs are renowned for their ability to find drugs, but researchers at Amersham Hospital, Buckinghamshire, have been training their dogs to detect cancerous cells. What breed was best?
a) Cocker spaniel
b) Corgi
c) Dalmatian
2. Why did the following names hit the headlines?
a) Ouarda Tourat
b) Tabouli and Baba Ganoush
c) Griff
3. In September, which country suspended the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution?
4. Dr Katharine Dalton died in September 2004. What term did she coin?
a) Premature ejaculation
b) Premenstrual syndrome
c) Pre-eclampsia
5. What did the Sun report as a way of reducing the risk of cancer?
a) Eating beetroot
b) Breast massaging
c) Reading Philip Pullman novels
d) Living in Lincolnshire
6. What was unusual about the biscuits, yogurts and drinks produced by scientists at the Vorenezh state university, Russia?
a) They were all vodka flavoured
b) They were made from blood
c) They contained almost no calories
d) They were superconducting
7. The Natural History Museum recruited 100 new staff in August. What was unusual about them?
a) They were all called Barbara
b) They were flesh-eating beetles
c) They were all from Peru
8. July saw a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of a fierce opponent of Darwin who identified the gorilla and dodo, spotted that the platypus was a mammal, coined the term dinosaur, and founded the Natural History Museum in 1881. Who was he?
9. In February, using sophisticated radar, scientists find the remains of a famous vessel in the mud near Potton Island in the Essex marshes. Which ship?
a) HMS Beagle
b) Beagle 2
c) The Golden Hind
10. A foodstuff has been suggested as a treatment for cystic fibrosis and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Which foodstuff?
a) Turmeric
b) Kippers
c) Lobster
11. Steven Stack and James Gundlach won the 2004 IgNobel prize for Medicine for their 1992 paper exploring the impact of what on suicide?
a) Chocolate
b) Goldfish
c) Ferrets
d) Country music
12. Who won the vote for the UK’s favourite TV scientist?
a) Mr Spock from Star Trek
b) Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker from the Muppets
c) Doctor Who
d) Q from the James Bond films
13. Dr Len Fisher and three times World Porridge Making champion Duncan Hildrich came up with the perfect formula for making lump-free porridge. What was the formula?
a) V = (S x spoon size) / H
b) H = V x S / spoon size2
c) H = S x spoon size / H
V = speed of stirring
S = shear force caused by stirring
H = thickness of porridge
14. The salmon developed by Yutaka Takeuchi produced unusual offspring. How were they unusual?
a) They can leap twice as high up a waterfall as a normal salmon
b) They looked like Henry Kissinger
c) They were trout
15. Which one of these did not appear in scientific press in 2004?
a) The mole vole
b) The mole rat
c) The mole lemming
d) The mole badger
16. Which of these was not the title of a scientific paper published in 2004?
a) Reliability of bloodhounds in criminal investigations
b) Digestive pathology of penguins stranded in the Canary Islands between 1993 and 2001
c) Effect of ethanol and some alcoholic beverages on gastric emptying in humans
d) Fire ant attacks on patients in nursing homes: an increasing problem
e) Peracute sodium toxicity in free-ranging black-bellied whistling duck ducklings
f) Organismal effects of pesticide exposure on meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) living in golf course ecosystems
17. The name of the new species of ‘micro-human’ discovered this year is:
a) Homo hobbitus
b) Homo arthuraskius
c) Homo floresiensis
d) Homo erectus minor
18. In the journal Medical Hypotheses, to what social change does Jarl Flensmark of Malmo ascribe the origins of schizophrenia?
a) The introduction of heeled shoes
b) Growth in contact with people speaking foreign languages
c) Dietary consumption of goat's cheese
d) Increased involvement of mothers-in-law in child rearing
