The Science at the Movies Pub Quiz

Round 1Films 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 2Emoji science

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

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

Round 3Films in science-speak

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

1. A teenager gains arachnid-like traits after a bite from a genetically modified spider.
2. An oxygen tank ruptures on the way to the Moon, and ground staff must improvise a carbon dioxide scrubber from spare parts.
3. A population of blue humanoids shares a neural link with the root network of its forest.
4. A lone waste-compacting robot finds a seedling, the first sign of plant life on Earth for centuries.
5. A burglar shrinks to insect size by reducing the distance between his atoms.
6. A virus spread by respiratory droplets and contaminated surfaces outpaces a global response.
7. An Alzheimer's drug trialled on chimpanzees produces a dramatic rise in intelligence.
8. A synthetic drug leaks into a woman's bloodstream and rapidly expands her cognitive ability.

Round 4Missing vowels: science

Vowels removed, spaces moved. Name the science word. eight questions.

1. CH LRP HYLL
2. MT CHN DR
3. GR VTY
4. MC RSC P
5. CS YST M
6. HY PTH SS
7. PL LNT N
8. FS SL

Round 5Films in science-speak

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

1. A biologist enters a zone where light is refracted, and DNA from different species is blended.
2. A neurotic worker ant questions the caste system of his colony.
3. A society sorts its citizens by genotype, and a man with a heart defect borrows another man's DNA.
4. An eleven-year-old's mind is run by five personified emotions after a house move.
5. A young emperor penguin who cannot sing but can tap-dance is blamed for a shortage of fish.
6. Collapse of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation triggers a new ice age within days.
7. A piglet ignores species norms and learns to herd sheep.
8. A blue tang with short-term memory loss searches for her parents.

Round 6Fact 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 7Close-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 8Closest wins

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

1. How far is the Sun from Earth, on average, in millions of kilometres?
2. How many teeth does an adult human have, wisdom teeth included?
3. How long is the Great Barrier Reef, in kilometres?
4. How old is the Earth, in billions of years?

HandoutRiddles and puzzles

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

1. The more of me you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
2. I have cities but no houses, mountains but no trees and water but no fish. What am I?
3. A pond weed doubles its area every week and covers the whole pond after 10 weeks. In which week was it half covered?
4. What has a heart that doesn't beat?
5. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?
6. What can you hold in your left hand but never in your right?
7. What goes up when the rain comes down?
8. What has teeth but cannot bite?