Science & Nature50 randomly selected Science & Nature questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 10th August 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
|
|
|
|
| 1. | In plants and animals, what part of a cell contains nearly all its genetic material? |
|
Nucleus | |
| 2. | What is the largest planet in our solar system? |
|
Jupiter | |
| 3. | Where in the human body is the soleus muscle? |
|
(Lower) Leg (The calf) | |
| 4. | What acid is also known as vitamin B9? |
|
Folic acid / Folate / Folacin | |
| 5. | In electronics, how many terminals does a transistor have? |
|
Three | |
| 6. | Native to South America, what 'S' describes this type of monkey? |
|
Saki (pictured is a white-faced saki) | |
| 7. | What common name is given to this nocturnal gliding possum? |
|
Sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps) | |
| 8. | The name of what animal is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words for "person of the forest"? |
|
Orangutan (orang "person" and hutan "forest") | |
| 9. | Containing approximately 75% of the atmosphere's mass, and also where all weather takes place, what name is given to the lowest portion of the Earth's atmosphere? |
|
Troposphere | |
| 10. | What family of bird has the largest wingspan? |
|
Albatross (Wandering Albatross) | |
| 11. | What 'M' is the product of the mass and velocity of an object? |
|
Momentum | |
| 12. | What 7-letter word can be spelt using the chemical symbols for copper, thallium, arsenic, and sulphur? |
|
Cutlass | |
| 13. | What name is given to this dinosaur? |
|
Triceratops | |
| 14. | What is the name of the world's first "test tube baby", born on 25th July 1978 in Oldham, England? |
|
Louise Brown | |
| 15. | A brand name introduced by Corning Inc. in 1915, what is the most commonly used term for borosilicate glass? |
|
Pyrex (Gorilla Glass, a different material, was officially introduced by Corning in February 2008) | |
| 16. | What dog was originally bred in Germany to hunt and dig out badgers? |
|
Dachshund (German: Dachs "badger" and Hund "dog") | |
| 17. | At room temperature, what is the most malleable metal element? |
|
Gold (a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square metre) | |
| 18. | An astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of length defined by the mean distance between which two celestial objects? |
|
Earth and Sun | |
| 19. | "Mary's 'virgin' explanation made Joseph suspect upstairs neighbour," is one of many ways to remember what? |
|
The order of the planets in our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) | |
| 20. | In audio-visual terms, what does HDMI stand for? |
|
High-Definition Multimedia Interface | |
| 21. | How is the medical condition dyspepsia better known? |
|
Indigestion or upset stomach | |
| 22. | What is the sum of the internal angles of a hexagon? |
|
720° | |
| 23. | What name is given to a parallelogram with four equal sides and no right angles? |
|
Rhombus (Every rhombus is a parallelogram and a kite. A rhombus with right angles is a square.) | |
| 24. | In nature, what 'P' describes a layer of ground (soil, rock or sediment) that remains frozen for more than two consecutive years? |
|
Permafrost | |
| 25. | What colour is orange blossom? |
|
White | |
| 26. | Where does an arboreal animal live? |
|
In trees (From Latin arbor - "tree") | |
| 27. | What "A" is a common name for any of a group of small to very large marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae? |
|
Abalone | |
| 28. | Native to Africa, by what name are Galagos more commonly known? |
|
Bush babies / Nagapies | |
| 29. | Priapism is a medical condition affecting which part of the body? |
|
Penis (A prolonged state of erection) | |
| 30. | Hippology is the study of what? |
|
Horses | |
| 31. | What was the name of the first Space Station to be launched by the USA, in orbit between 1973 and 1979? |
|
Skylab | |
| 32. | Chromatics is the science of what? |
|
Colour | |
| 33. | What chemical element, with the atomic number 31, is named after the Latin word for the region in and around modern-day France during the Roman Empire? |
|
Gallium (Latin Gallia meaning Gaul) | |
| 34. | What 'M' describes this type of monkey? |
|
Mandrill | |
| 35. | What is polyvinyl chloride better known as? |
|
PVC | |
| 36. | Making up around 8% by weight of the Earth's solid surface, what is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust? |
|
Aluminium | |
| 37. | Found only in the Ethiopian Highlands, what type of mammal is a galada? |
|
Monkey (sometimes called the bleeding-heart monkey or the gelada baboon) | |
| 38. | Located on Mars, covering an area approximately the size of Arizona, and standing almost three times as tall as Mount Everest, what is the name of the Solar System's largest volcano? |
|
Olympus Mons / Mount Olympus | |
| 39. | To the nearest 2%, what is the percent mass of oxygen in water? |
|
88.8% (rougly 16 ÷ 18, more accurately 15.99999 ÷ 18.01528) | |
| 40. | What 'R' describes an alternative medicine involving application of pressure to the feet and hands with specific thumb, finger, and hand techniques without the use of oil or lotion? |
|
Reflexology | |
| 41. | What chemical element accounts for about three quarters of the Sun's mass? |
|
Hydrogen | |
| 42. | At home, how might ethyl mercaptan (ethanethiol) save your life? |
|
Its smell (It is intentionally added to butane and propane to impart an easily noticed smell to these normally odourless fuels that pose the threat of fire, explosion, and asphyxiation.) | |
| 43. | Translate the following Morse Code into a four letter word:
|
|
QUIZ | |
| 44. | On what temperature scale, at standard pressure, does pure ice melt at 273.15? |
|
Kelvin (0 °C is equal to 273.15 K) | |
| 45. | P is the symbol for what chemical element? |
|
Phosphorus | |
| 46. | Nitrogen and Oxygen make up 99% of the Earth's atmosphere. At 0.934%, what is the third-most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere? |
|
Argon (followed by carbon dioxide at 0.04%) | |
| 47. | What colour are the flowers of a tomato plant? |
|
Yellow | |
| 48. | A gas above -269 °C, at -272.2° C, what chemical element has the lowest freezing point? |
|
Helium | |
| 49. | In meteorology, an okta is a unit of measurement used to describe what? |
|
Cloud cover (0 = completely clear, 8 = completely cloudy) | |
| 50. | What 'T' describes the twelve vertebrae in the middle segment of the human vertebral column? |
|
Thoracic / Thorax | |
|
Back to Top Hide Answers Back to Category Index Back to Quiz Index |
|