The A to Z Science Quiz!

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A. This illustration is from The Book of Fixed Stars written by Al Sufi around 1000 AD. It is thought to contain one of the earliest depictions of something, shown here as a clump of dots around the lower fish’s mouth. This hazy depiction is likely because that’s how it may have appeared to the naked eye. Scientists estimate there is a 50% chance we might collide with this in the next ten billion years. What are we talking about?

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B. This scientist sent a paper to Albert Einstein on light quanta (now called photons) in which he derived Planck’s Law without any references to classical Physics. This impressed Einstein so much that he translated the paper himself from English to German and submitted it on behalf of the author to Zeitschrift fur Physik, which published it in 1924. The two scientists give their name to a state of matter which is achieved by a class of sub-atomic particles at low densities when cooled to near absolute zero. Which scientist is this?

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C. Where would you find the coldest large-scale machine on earth, where the operating temperatures touch -271 deg C and is even colder than outer space

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D. To store arbitrary data into this unusual storage medium, first, the data is converted into base 3, and each digit is then translated into a nucleotide using a lookup table. This synthetic storage medium has enormous potential because of its high storage density, but its real-life applications are limited due to high costs and slow read and write times. In June 2019, scientists claimed they had managed to store all 16 GB of text from the English Wikipedia onto such a synthetic medium. Which unique storage medium is this?

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E. This is the largest and heaviest of all living species of penguins and is endemic to Antarctica. If the second-largest species of penguins is called king penguin, then what is this species called?

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F. In 1948, an American physicist invented a visual way to represent quantum interactions using simple lines, arrows, and squiggles. These diagrams later became so fundamental to particle physics that they’re now taught to physicists worldwide. The physicist we’re talking about later won the Nobel Prize in 1965 and is widely known for being involved in the Manhattan Project (And his bongo-playing and safe-cracking skills). Who are we talking about?

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G. Dmitri Mendeleev organised elements by atomic weight and noticed gaps in his periodic table. He predicted that an undiscovered element should exist below Silicon, and even described its properties in detail. In 1886, chemist Clemens Winkler discovered this element and named it after his homeland. Today, this semiconductor element is crucial for fibre optic cables and infrared optics. Which element?

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H. In the 1940s, engineer Dennis Gabor was working with electron microscopes, but he ran into some limitations. He spoke about his idea later, “My idea was to take a bad picture, even a quite hopeless looking picture, but one which contained the whole information, amplitude and phase of the electron waves, and to reconstruct from this bad picture, the real one by means of light waves.” Today, this principle is used in security stickers and art. What concept are we talking about?

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I. What term in mathematics was originally coined by René Descartes in the 17th Century? He wrote about it in his book ‘La Geometrie’ and meant the term to be derogatory as he considered the concept fictitious and useless. It wasn’t until the work of later mathematicians such as Euler and Gauss that the concept became popular and gained wider acceptance.

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J. During World War II, American B-29 bomber pilots flying over Japan at 30,000 feet encountered powerful winds that could push their planes hundreds of kilometres off course. Ironically, Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Oishi had documented these winds in the 1920s, but his papers were published only in Esperanto and went unnoticed by Western scientists. What are these narrow bands of high-altitude wind that circle the globe?

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K. In the 1960s, chemist Stephanie Kwolek was working on polymers to make car tyres stronger. Unlike the usual polymers, which were clear and thick, she started off with a solution that was thin and looked like buttermilk. Even though a technician worried the thin mixture might clog the spinneret machine, Kwolek decided to test it anyway. The fibres that came out were extremely strong and stiff, five times stronger than steel. Today, these fibres are used in many products, from bulletproof vests to airplane tires. Which polymer is this?

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L. Launched by ISRO in 2023, Aditya-L1 is India’s first dedicated space mission to study the sun. The mission’s name neatly encapsulates its objective as Aditya is a Sanskrit name meaning “sun”, and L1 refers to the point in which the satellite has been placed that allows for continuous, unobstructed monitoring of the sun. Named after an Italian-French mathematician who identified these points when working on a problem known as the “General Three-Body Problem”, what does L1 correspond to?

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M. “In 1897, while working in Calcutta, Ronald Ross sent a poem to his wife after discovering how a deadly parasite responsible for malaria is transmitted. This breakthrough later helped save millions of lives, and Ross went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902, becoming the first British Nobel Laureate. What name did he give to the anniversary of his discovery, which is commemorated every year on August 20th?”

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N. In the real biological sense, structures of the type shown are found in brains and complex systems, where individual nodes are chemically connected to others through synapses and each node can be connected to hundreds of thousands of synapses. Signals that propagate through such systems trigger thought and action. In computer science, artificial mathematical models meant to teach computers to “think” are designed to mimic such biological structures and are used commonly in machine learning applications. What are such structures called?

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O. Which brilliant and respected nuclear physicist, atomic research consultant, inventor and lecturer designed a set of highly advanced mechanical arms controlled via a brain-computer interface to assist him with his research into atomic physics? The tentacle-like arms were resistant to radiation and were capable of great strength, and were attached to a harness that fit around his body. He claimed the inspiration for this device came from Leonard da Vinci’s sketches. In a later accident, the harness becomes permanently fused to his body, and in the aftermath of this accident he turns to a life of crime.

Answer : Dr. Octopus, or Otto Octavius, from the fictional world of Spiderman

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P. The Sulbasutras are ancient texts that contain information on geometrical and mathematical considerations relating to the construction of fire-altar constructions as part of Vedic rituals. They are considered to be the main sources of knowledge of Indian mathematics from the Vedic period. The Apastamba Salbasutra’s rules for constructing right angles in fire-altars use the following sets of lengths: (3, 4, 5), (5, 12, 13), (8, 15, 17), (12, 35, 37). By what Greek mathematician’s name are these sets more popularly known?

Answer : Pythagoras/Pythagorean triplets

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Q. This English word is derived from Latin for “fifth element” as it was the extra element that Aristotle proposed to add to the four classical elements of earth, wind, fire and air. He posited it to be a pure, fine element that was present in all things. Today, the English word is used to mean the purest or most typical instance of something. What’s the good word?

Answer : Quintessence (from quinta essentia)

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R. Whose portrait has been blanked out?

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S. In which ancient Indian physician’s compendium are tools such as those in the image described? The illustrations themselves are reconstructions based on the descriptions in the compendium. The text is considered to be one of the most important surviving ancient treatises on medicine and the author himself is considered a pioneer in a specific field. In the text, he advises students to practice first on bottle gourds, cucumbers and dead animals before using the techniques for real.

Answer : Sushruta, father of surgery

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T. On 30th June 1503, Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica. The indigenous people of the island welcomed him and his crew and provided them with food. But after six months, they stopped the supply of food, becoming disappointed with the trade Columbus could offer in return. Consulting an almanac he had with him, Columbus used an upcoming astronomical event to impress and frighten the locals into thinking that God was angry with their behaviour. The scared locals resumed their supply of provisions and begged Columbus to restore normalcy, which of course, duly happened within 48 mins. What specific type of astronomical event did Columbus take advantage of?

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U. Most tissues in eukaryotic organisms have a small regulatory protein whose purpose is to tag other damaged or unneeded proteins and signal them to be removed. This pathway was discovered in the 1980s and honoured with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. What name was given to the regulatory protein because it was found everywhere?

Answer : Ubiquitin (from ubiquitous)

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V. Typically, the tiny hairs on the inner surfaces of the leaves are usually triggered by touch, such as through movement or by vibrations. But it has been discovered that the hairs also act as heat sensors and are triggered, for instance, when flames approach during a forest fire. This makes these plants resilient as they are able to snap shut and protect themselves from summer fires. Which plants?

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W. What is the name of the hypothetical region of spacetime in General Relativity that cannot be entered from the outside although energy, matter, light, and information can escape from it? This is a purely theoretical and mathematical concept introduced in the 1930s as a solution to Einstein’s equations. Its name is an inversion of the name of an astronomical body.

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X. The medical use of this new technology was discovered when the inventor made a picture of his wife’s hand on a photographic plate. The photograph of his wife’s hand, complete with the ring that she was wearing, was the first photograph of a human body part using this hitherto unidentified phenomenon. When she saw the picture, she is reported to have said, “I have seen my death.” What technology are we talking about?

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Y. In 1891, German cytologist Hermann Henking observed a strange structure in insect sperm cells that did not pair like the others during cell division. Because its function was unknown, he called it the “X element,” using “X” in the mathematical sense of “unknown”. A few years later, scientists found a smaller partner element which went along with it. Although its purpose was known by now, they gave it a name that was consistent with the X element. This quirk in nomenclature has stuck to this day. What did they call the smaller partner element?

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Z. A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. For example, mice, e.coli, yeast, fruit flies etc. are easy to breed and propagate and are often used in scientific experiments. What type of small fish is also often used as a model organism because it has a completely transparent embryo and larvae making it easy for scientist to directly see the effect of their experiments on the fish’s body? The stripes on its body may lead you to the answer.