The End-of-Term Biology Pub Quiz

Round 1Fact or fiction

Myths and true-but-weird facts. Teams write Fact or Fiction. ten questions.

1. Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
2. A teaspoon of neutron star would weigh billions of tonnes.
3. Goldfish have a three-second memory.
4. An octopus has three hearts.
5. We only use 10% of our brains.
6. Bananas are slightly radioactive.
7. Bulls are enraged by the colour red.
8. Sharks have been around longer than trees.
9. The Great Wall of China is visible from the Moon with the naked eye.
10. Venus spins in the opposite direction to most of the planets.

Round 2Films in science-speak

A film plot, described like a research abstract. Name the film. eight questions.

1. A theme park's genetic engineers fail to account for amphibian DNA's ability to change sex.
2. A botanist stranded on Mars uses his own waste to fertilise a potato crop.
3. A clownfish undertakes a long-distance migration after his only offspring is collected for a dentist's aquarium.
4. A rat with an exceptional sense of smell takes over a Parisian kitchen.
5. A mammoth, a ground sloth and a sabre-toothed cat return a human infant to its family.
6. Time dilation near a black hole costs a father 23 years on one planet visit.
7. A lion cub is exiled after his uncle engineers a wildebeest stampede.
8. Emperor penguins walk about 70 miles inland to breed through the Antarctic winter.

Round 3Who am I? Scientists

Three clues, hardest first. 3 points after clue 1, 2 after clue 2, 1 after clue 3. six questions.

1. Clue 1: I discovered two elements, and one is named after my homeland. Clue 2: I was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Clue 3: I worked on radioactivity with my husband, Pierre.
2. Clue 1: I spent eight years studying barnacles. Clue 2: I sailed round the world on HMS Beagle. Clue 3: I wrote On the Origin of Species.
3. Clue 1: I also studied the structure of coal and of viruses. Clue 2: An X-ray image from my lab, Photo 51, was key to a famous discovery. Clue 3: My X-ray work helped reveal the double helix of DNA.
4. Clue 1: I was Master of the Royal Mint and chased forgers. Clue 2: I split white light into a spectrum with a prism. Clue 3: A falling apple is said to have inspired my theory of gravity.
5. Clue 1: I was an abbot in Brno. Clue 2: My work was ignored until it was rediscovered in 1900. Clue 3: I bred pea plants and worked out the laws of inheritance.
6. Clue 1: I was offered the presidency of Israel and turned it down. Clue 2: I won my Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect. Clue 3: E = mc².

Round 4Close-up

A tiny zoomed-in patch. What's the full picture? eight questions.

eight close-up pictures on screen, each a tiny patch of something familiar.

Round 5Animal kingdom

Quickfire natural-history trivia. ten questions.

1. What is the only mammal capable of true flight?
2. What is the fastest land animal?
3. Which bird lays the largest eggs?
4. What is a group of crows called?
5. What is the largest animal ever known to have lived?
6. Name a mammal that lays eggs.
7. How many wings does a bee have?
8. Which land mammal has the longest pregnancy?
9. Butterflies taste with which part of their body?
10. What do giant pandas mostly eat?

Round 6Emoji science

Read the emoji, name the science word or phrase. eight questions.

1. 🟩🏠
2. 🌍🔥
3. ⭐🐟
4. 💡🪱
5. 🧊⏳
6. 🌙🚶
7. ☀️🌸
8. ⚫🕳️

Round 7Connections

Four things. What links them? five questions.

1. Golgi, Krebs, Mendel, Hooke
2. Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury
3. Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea
4. Emerald, Lime, Olive, Jade
5. Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium

Round 8Closest wins

Estimation questions. Nearest team wins the point. Doubles as the tiebreaker. four questions.

1. How many bones are in the adult human body?
2. How far is the Moon from Earth, on average, in kilometres?
3. How tall is Mount Everest, in metres?
4. How fast does sound travel through air at 20 °C, in metres per second?

HandoutRiddles and puzzles

Little brain-teasers. Best as the handout teams chip away at all quiz long. eight questions.

1. The more of me there is, the less you see. What am I?
2. I'm lighter than a feather, but even the strongest person can't hold me for long. What am I?
3. Bacteria in a jar double every minute. The jar is full at 12:00. When was it half full?
4. I have a nucleus but I'm not a cell. I have shells but I'm not a beach. What am I?
5. Germanium, nickel, uranium and sulfur. Write their symbols in order: what word do you get?
6. What word is this: H I J K L M N O?
7. You'll find me in Mercury, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, but never in Venus. What am I?
8. What comes next: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, …?