Science & Nature50 randomly selected Science & Nature questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 5th 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 Some questions and answers may be outdated.)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. | What two planets in our solar system are classed as ice giants? |
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Uranus and Neptune (giant planets composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur) | |
| 2. | What 'P' describes an artificial device that replaces a missing body part? |
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Prosthetic / Prosthesis | |
| 3. | What single unit of measure equals one-millionth of a metre or one-thousandth of a millimetre? |
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Micron (also Micrometre/Micrometer) | |
| 4. | In what century did pioneering Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus live? |
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18th (1707-1778) | |
| 5. | A two-dimensional matrix barcode, what does QR stand for? |
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Quick Response | |
| 6. | In degrees Fahrenheit, what is the boiling point of water? |
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212 (211.9 °F / 99.97 °C ) | |
| 7. | Belonging to the subphylum Medusozoa, what invertebrates account for nearly 40% of the total biomass of the world's oceans? |
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Jellyfish | |
| 8. | What 7-letter word can be spelt using the chemical symbols for beryllium, arsenic, thallium, and yttrium? |
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Beastly | |
| 9. | What 'N' is the medical term for a chronic sleep disorder characterised by an excessive urge to sleep at inappropriate times? |
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Narcolepsy | |
| 10. | What is the only species of penguin that lives north of the equator? |
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Galápagos | |
| 11. | What chemical element has the symbol Se? |
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Selenium | |
| 12. | A bone found in many placental mammals, where is the baculum located? |
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Penis (the baculum in female mammals is known as the baubellum, a bone in the clitoris) | |
| 13. | Dating from the Late Jurassic period, what type of dinosaur is this? |
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Stegosaurus | |
| 14. | A gas above -269 °C, at -272.2° C, what chemical element has the lowest freezing point? |
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Helium | |
| 15. | What 'M' describes the upper bone of the jaw? |
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Maxilla | |
| 16. | What 'F' describes the lowest temperature at which the vapours of a volatile material ignite if given an ignition source? |
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Flash point | |
| 17. | Harpy, Serpent, Martial and Booted are all types of what bird? |
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Eagle | |
| 18. | In what decade did Albert Einstein publish his Annus Mirabilis papers on what is now called special relativity? |
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The 1900s (1905) | |
| 19. | The Airbus A400M long-range military transport plane is known by what name? |
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Atlas | |
| 20. | Sulphuric acid contains sulphur, oxygen, and what other element? |
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Hydrogen (H2SO4) | |
| 21. | Udometer, pluviometer, hyetometer and ombrometer are all instruments used to measure what? |
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Rainfall | |
| 22. | Native to the Andes mountains in South America, what 'C' describes this rodent? |
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Chinchilla | |
| 23. | A form of computer data storage, what does he acronym RAM stand for? |
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Random-access memory | |
| 24. | What do Chiropterans have that most other mammals don't? |
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Wings (i.e. bats) | |
| 25. | Where on the human body are the filiform, fungiform, foliate, and circumvallate papillae? |
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Tongue (Lingual papillae) | |
| 26. | What chemical element is most commonly used in the filament of an incandescent light bulb? |
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Tungsten / Wolfram | |
| 27. | Fulminology is the scientific study of, and astraphobia is the fear of, what? |
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Lightning / Thunder | |
| 28. | By mass, what is the most abundant chemical element in the human body? |
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Oxygen (65%) | |
| 29. | What 'B' describes a camel with two humps? |
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Bactrian (in contrast to the single-humped dromedary camel) | |
| 30. | What 'L' describes the system of delicate tubes throughout the body that circulate excess fluid and help fight disease? |
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Lymphatic | |
| 31. | What three initials describe the human form of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE)? |
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CJD (Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease) | |
| 32. | What 16th century Polish astronomer is famed for formulating a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the centre of the universe? |
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Nicolaus Copernicus (Copernican Revolution) | |
| 33. | "A Silly Dancing Frog Giggles Happily" and "Jazzy Kangaroo's Little Semi" are two examples of mnemonics used to help remember what? |
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Keyboard characters (Middle row) | |
| 34. | In reference to a type of plastic, what do the initials "PVC" stand for? |
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Polyvinyl chloride | |
| 35. | Native to Africa, what is this animal called? |
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Meerkat / Suricate | |
| 36. | "Singultus" is the medical term for what common condition? |
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Hiccups | |
| 37. | In the body, what colour blood cells are leukocytes? |
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White | |
| 38. | A common type of interface used to connect hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. What does the 'S' in SATA stand for? |
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Serial (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) | |
| 39. | Growing to a length of up to 5.7m, what is the world's longest venomous snake? |
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King Cobra | |
| 40. | Alces alces is the largest extant species in the deer family. What is its common name? |
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Moose / Elk | |
| 41. | What 'V' describes the chemical process that hardens rubber with the addition of sulphur? |
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Vulcanisation | |
| 42. | In engineering, what 'G' describes a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis? |
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Gimbal | |
| 43. | How many limbs does a lobster have? |
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10 | |
| 44. | What does the internet slang abbreviation IMHO mean? |
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In My Humble/Honest Opinion | |
| 45. | What chemical element accounts for about three quarters of the Sun's mass? |
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Hydrogen | |
| 46. | After the femur, what is the next largest bone in the human body? |
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Tibia (Shinbone) | |
| 47. | What element has the chemical symbol Hg? |
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Mercury | |
| 48. | What is the seventh planet from the Sun? |
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Uranus | |
| 49. | Hallux is the medical term for what body part? |
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Big toe | |
| 50. | What 'C' is the common name for this flower? |
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Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus / bachelor's button) | |
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