Science & Nature50 randomly selected Science & Nature questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 19th October 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | Laying down the the foundation for classical mechanics, how many laws of motion were compiled by Isaac Newton in his 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy? |
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Three | |
| 2. | What 5-letter word can be spelt using the chemical symbols for Iron, Technetium and Hydrogen? |
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Fetch | |
| 3. | What four letter acronym describes the organisation in charge of the Large Hadron Collider beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva? |
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CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) | |
| 4. | What 'S' describes the monoamine neurotransmitters popularly thought to be a contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness? |
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Seratonin | |
| 5. | What does the 'V' stand for in the fertility treatment IVF? |
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Vitro (In vitro fertilization) | |
| 6. | What acid also goes by the name of Oil of Vitriol? |
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Sulfuric / Sulphuric (H2SO4) | |
| 7. | Native to North America, what type of bird is this? |
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Blue jay | |
| 8. | How many prime numbers are there between 10 and 20? |
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4 (11,13,17,19) | |
| 9. | What 'V' describes a diagram that shows all possible logical relations between a finite collection of different sets? |
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Venn diagram (introduced in 1880 by John Venn) | |
| 10. | What single word describes a branch of Old World tailless simians native to Africa and Southeast Asia? |
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Apes (Hominoidea) | |
| 11. | What is the Latin name for the constellation known as the "Great Bear"? |
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Ursa Major | |
| 12. | What 'P' is the stomach enzyme that serves to digest proteins found in ingested food? |
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Pepsin | |
| 13. | What 4-letter word can be spelt using the chemical symbols for lithium, nitrogen, and potassium? |
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Link | |
| 14. | What gas do plants produce as a waste product of photosynthesis? |
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Oxygen | |
| 15. | What does a heliologist study? |
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The Sun | |
| 16. | In computing, what name is given to malicious software that threatens to publish the victim's data or perpetually block access to it unless a payment is made? |
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Ransomware | |
| 17. | What type of animal can be baleen or toothed? |
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Whale | |
| 18. | "Consumption" was the most common nineteenth century English word for what disease? |
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Tuberculosis | |
| 19. | What 'S' is the transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas state, without passing through the liquid state? |
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Sublimation | |
| 20. | What does the I stand for in H.I.V.? |
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Immunodeficiency (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) | |
| 21. | In human anatomy, what 'F' describes the soft membranous gaps on an infant's skull? |
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Fontanelle / Fontanel | |
| 22. | In computer terminology, what does LAN stand for? |
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Local area network | |
| 23. | What type of animals are studied by a lepidopterist? |
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Butterflies / Moths | |
| 24. | What does the letter 'D' stand for in RADAR? |
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Detection (Radio detection and ranging) | |
| 25. | What is the largest organ of the human body? |
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Skin | |
| 26. | What was the name of the first Space Station to be launched by the USA, in orbit between 1973 and 1979? |
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Skylab | |
| 27. | In computing, what is the word bit short for? |
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Binary digit | |
| 28. | What was the name of the male German Shepherd that was an international star in motion pictures from 1922 to 1931? |
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Rin Tin Tin | |
| 29. | In nature, what 'P' describes a layer of ground (soil, rock or sediment) that remains frozen for more than two consecutive years? |
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Permafrost | |
| 30. | Who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1921 for "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect"? |
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Albert Einstein | |
| 31. | How many sides does a heptadecagon have? |
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17 | |
| 32. | Present in most mammals, where is the vestibular system located? |
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Ear (in the inner ear, controlling balance) | |
| 33. | What organ is affected by emphysema? |
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Lungs | |
| 34. | Found in coastal areas in many parts of the world, what 'O' describes this bird? |
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Oystercatcher (American oystercatcher pictured) | |
| 35. | Who is credited with the invention of the modern hovercraft in the 1950s? |
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Christopher Cockerell | |
| 36. | What common long-term skin disease is caused by inflammation of the sebaceous glands? |
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Acne | |
| 37. | What letter of the alphabet is represented by a single dash in Morse Code? |
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T | |
| 38. | Lupine is to wolf as vulpine is to what? |
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Fox | |
| 39. | What does GPS stand for? |
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Global Positioning System | |
| 40. | Between November 1971 and October 1972, the Mariner 9 space probe returned 7329 images of what planet? |
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Mars | |
| 41. | What 9-letter word can be spelt using the chemical symbols for flourine, lanthanum, thulium, astatine, and einsteinium? |
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Flatmates | |
| 42. | In both mathematics and shorthand, what word is represented by this symbol? |
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Therefore | |
| 43. | What is the collective noun for a group of crows? |
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Murder / Horde | |
| 44. | Completed in Pennsylvania in 1945, what five letters describe the world's first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer? |
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ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) | |
| 45. | What keyboard function key opens a "Save As" dialog box in many Windows programs and, in Mac OS 10.4 or later, shows or hides the Dashboard? |
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F12 | |
| 46. | Closely related to manatees, what 'D' describes this sea mammal? |
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Dugong | |
| 47. | American Yorkshire, Gloucester Old Spot and Wessex Saddleback are all types of what? |
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Pig (Domestic breeds) | |
| 48. | A major component of cheese, what 'C' makes up 80% of the proteins in cow milk? |
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Casein (from Latin caseus, "cheese") | |
| 49. | Titanium dioxide is commonly used as a pigment to produce what colour? |
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White (Titanium white) | |
| 50. | The symbol for what chemical element is derived from the Latin word plumbum? |
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Lead (Pb) | |
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