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Keeping it clean – a quick quiz

By , 12 January 2022

It’s time for a clean start to the new year! Can you keep your score sheet clean and get 5/5?

#1. Which of the following organs helps to clean your blood?

Each of these organs does a different job cleaning your blood. The spleen gets rid of old red blood cells, the liver removes toxins, and the kidneys filter out waste that is then removed in your urine.

#2. Soap can be made by mixing a corrosive chemical called lye, and what other ingredient?

Soap molecules are fatty on one end, and salty on the other (in this case from the lye). The fatty end sticks to grease and oil, and the salty end lets it dissolve in water!

#3. True or false? There are places known as ‘cleaning stations’, where large sea creatures go to get cleaned by smaller creatures.

True! Cleaner wrasses, cleaner gobies and cleaner shrimp all congregate at cleaning stations.

#4. Which Australian state now runs on 100% renewable energy?

In November 2020, Tasmania became the first state in Australia to reach their 100% renewable energy target. This state can generate all the power it needs from hydroelectricity and wind.

#5. Salt can kill some bacteria, but how does it work?

Salt can pull the water out of living cells, in a process called osmosis.

Was I right?

Results

Congratulations! You are a real science whiz!

Oh dear! Better brush up before the next quiz!

 

If you’re after more fun science for kids, subscribe to Double Helix magazine!

 

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2 comments

  1. Tasmania still has Gas fired power stations. To state that Tasmania runs on 100% renewable is incorrect.

      Reply
    1. Hi Charles,
      Good point! Tasmania does still have gas fired power stations. But it also generates more electricity from renewable sources than they use in total – so it’s kinda over 100%? I guess it’s really hard to be precise when the state has an interconnect to the rest of Australia.

        Reply

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