2024 is winding to a close and 2025 is just around the corner. What better way to celebrate than with a science quiz!
This quiz contains (almost) all of the science trivia questions featured in Double Helix Extra throughout 2024. There’s over 100 science questions to discover!
To make the quiz more manageable, it only displays 10 questions at a time. If you want more trivia, hit the refresh button to bring up a brand new selection of brain-busting science.
Results
Well done! You’re a real science whiz!
Oh dear! better brush up before the next quiz!
#1. What amazing feat can axolotls do?
Axolotls have the amazing ability to regrow limbs. When an axolotl loses a limb, they form a blastema which is a big group of cells that form at the injury site. The blastema has the instructions for the old limb, and then grows a new one.
#2. Tropical cyclones are storms of swirling wind that form over the ocean. About how many tropical cyclones form near Australia each year?
The average for Aussie cyclones per year is 11! Most of these occur between November and April and, on average, about 4 out of these 11 come onto land. Worldwide, there is an average of about 80-100 tropical cyclones each year.
#3. True or false? Geologists classify ice as a mineral.
True. Minerals are defined as inorganic (non-living) material arranged in a crystal structure. Ice is made of inorganic water molecules that form a crystal structure when they freeze. This means that geologists consider glaciers to be rocks!
#4. Antibiotics are important medicines that protect us against microbes. What was the first antibiotic discovered?
In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered that “mould juice” from a mould called penicillium could prevent the growth of bacteria (three different bacteria are options A, B and D). It’s possible Ancient Egyptians discovered mould’s abilities, too. They had a tradition of putting mouldy bread on wounds! Today we use antibiotics to treat all sorts of nasty bacteria.
#5. The small intestine is where we absorb most of our nutrients from food. If you flattened out an adult’s small intestine, how big of an area would it cover?
Even though the small intestine is just a 3-centimetre wide tube, it is long, it has lots of folds and it is covered by lots of finger-like structures called microvilli. All these features increase the area inside of the small intestine that food can touch as it goes through – all the better to absorb nutrients!
#6. There’s a way to tile space with no gaps, using regular octagons (stop sign shapes) and one other regular shape. What’s the other shape?
If you put four regular octagons together in a square shape, you’ll get a small, diagonal square gap in the middle. Repeat the pattern forever, fill all the gaps with little squares and you’re done.
#7. True or false? Albert Einstein’s theories predict that your head ages faster than your feet.
True! Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that gravity’s pull slows time down. So the further away you (or your body parts) are from the Earth, the faster time goes. The effect is incredibly small but satellites orbiting far above the Earth have to take this time difference into account.
#8. True or false? Scientists have linked climate change to more frequent earthquakes.
True! Climate change is increasing rainfall and glacial melt, both of which change the weight sitting on top of the Earth’s crust. More weight stabilises the crust but when it disappears, the land rebounds and more earthquakes occur.
#9. True or false? Neutron stars are so dense that 1 teaspoon of the star would weigh about a billion tonnes on Earth.
True. Neutron stars so squished that their atoms all merge together into one gigantic blob of neutrons. You can imagine a neutron star as the universe’s biggest atom – the size of a small city, but as heavy as the whole solar system!
#10. What’s warmer, 30 degrees Celsius or 30 degrees Fahrenheit?
30 degrees Celsius is a very warm day while 30 degrees Fahrenheit is just below freezing! The two scales measure the same temperature at negative 40 degrees.
Want even more? Try past megaquizzes: