Q 01/05

The brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri infects people only when water enters through which part of the body?

A) Ears

B) Eyes

C) Nose

D) Skin

Answer · why

C) Nose

The nose is the only way in: the amoeba follows the smell nerves up to the brain, while swallowing the same water is harmless. Infections are extremel...

Q 02/05

Which programming language was first developed for Amoeba, an operating system built at a university in Amsterdam?

A) Python

B) Pascal

C) Fortran

D) Perl

Answer · why

A) Python

Python was written by Guido van Rossum, who wanted a scripting language that could talk to Amoeba. The system made a whole network of computers behave...

Q 03/05

A German naturalist who drew the first known amoeba in 1755 named it after which shape-shifting Greek sea god?

A) Poseidon

B) Proteus

C) Triton

D) Nereus

Answer · why

B) Proteus

Proteus could take any form to slip away from those who caught him, so the ever-shifting pond creature became 'the little Proteus'. The same god gave ...

Q 04/05

Which of the human body's defenders crawl like an amoeba to chase down and engulf invading germs?

A) Red blood cells

B) Antibody proteins

C) Clotting platelets

D) White blood cells

Answer · why

D) White blood cells

White blood cells pursue bacteria and wrap around them, just as a pond amoeba takes its prey. Biologists even call their crawling style amoeboid movem...

Q 05/05

Which 1958 horror film gave Steve McQueen his first leading role, battling an amoeba-like alien in Pennsylvania?

A) The Blob

B) The Fly

C) The Thing

D) The Stuff

Answer · why

A) The Blob

The Blob stars a carnivorous jelly that arrives inside a meteorite and swells with every victim it absorbs. McQueen was paid just $3,000 for the part.