Enjoy our science quiz on biology and physics, from the livestream Adventures Abroad.
| Question 1 | Krill are very vulnerable to ocean acidification caused by climate change, which endangers the whole marine food chain. | True or False | False. Nicole’s experiments suggest krill have surprising resilience to more acidic water. So, not VERY vulnerable – some people have called them the cockroaches of the sea. But hey, let’s not push it too far! |
| Question 2 | Krill’s closest relatives are | a. Prawns
b. Cockroaches c. Blue whales d. 30 other species of Krill
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30 other species of krill. They are in their own Order Euphausiacea. They are in the same Class as crustaceans, so kind of cousins of prawns. |
| Question 3 | Places krill are found | a. Antarctica
b. Caribbean c. Mediterranean d. Pacific ocean e. Arctic f. Lake Burley Griffin
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All but Lake Burley Griffin. They’re one of the most widespread species. |
| Question 4 | Fusion fuel tritium (plus deuterium) carries more energy per gram than petrol by a factor of | a. 3
b. 30 c. 3000 d. 300,000 e. 30 million |
30 million. Actually Bert’s wrong, Antimatter has a higher energy density than tritium, by a factor of 300.
Fusion fuel has quadruple the energy density of uranium in fast breeder reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density_Extended_Reference_Table |
| Question 5 | The temperature of the core of the sun is 10 million degrees. ITER’s core will be | a. 1,000 degrees
b. 100,000 degrees c. 10 million degrees d. 100 million degrees e. 1 billion degrees
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100 million degrees. Yep, ten times hotter than the sun. Put enough energy into a small enough quantity of fuel, it’s possible to reach these temperatures
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| Question 6 | The sun burns tritium | True or False | False: the sun burns hydrogen, which is much less energy dense than tritium. ITER will be a much more efficient fusion reactor. |
| Question 7 | Gravitational Waves are the first proof ever of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity | True or False | False. It’s used regularly for satellite positioning, for example – GPS would not work without the theory. This is the first proof of it in a high-gravity situation. Like REALLY high gravity – much higher than falling into the sun, for example. |
| Question 8 | LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) ran for 50 years before making the first detection. | True or False | False. LIGO Mark 1 first searched for gravitational waves in 2002, although the scientists mostly believed (correctly) it was not sensitive enough to make a detection. After significant upgrades Advanced LIGO was opened 2015 and detected a black hole collision immediately. (Technically, they were still testing!) |
| Question 9 | In the first collision of two neutrons stars, observed by LIGO 3 years ago, approximately how much gold was created? | a. 1 tonne
b. 100 tonnes c. 1 billion tonnes d. The mass of the earth (10^24 kg) e. None, gold is created by Clive Palmier.
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Mass of earth. |
| Question 10 | What is the scientific significance of the following numbers, (chosen by Dramatis Scientificae for their Patreon tiers). | a. 3.14
b. 8 c. 17 d. 26 e. 42 f. 118 g. 451 h. 1022 |
Answers at Patreon.com/dramsci |
Try the Sunday quiz here.