Q 01/05

Beryllium was once called glucinium because some of its toxic compounds have which taste?

A) Salty

B) Sweet

C) Bitter

D) Sour

Answer · why

B) Sweet

Sweet-tasting salts gave the element its first name, and early researchers identified beryllium compounds by tasting them, a highly hazardous habit gi...

Q 02/05

Which space telescope, launched on Christmas Day 2021, has a main mirror of 18 beryllium segments?

A) Hubble

B) Kepler

C) James Webb

D) Nancy Grace Roman

Answer · why

C) James Webb

James Webb's mirror works in extreme cold, and beryllium was chosen because it is light, exceptionally stiff and deforms less than glass at those temp...

Q 03/05

Which green gemstone, the traditional birthstone for May, is a variety of the beryllium mineral beryl?

A) Jade

B) Peridot

C) Malachite

D) Emerald

Answer · why

D) Emerald

Emerald is rarely flawless: its mossy-looking internal cracks and inclusions are known as jardin, the French word for garden.

Q 04/05

Which 1999 sci-fi comedy starring Tim Allen features a starship powered by a beryllium sphere?

A) Galaxy Quest

B) Spaceballs

C) Mystery Men

D) Men in Black

Answer · why

A) Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest sends its washed-up television actors to a nearby planet to take a replacement sphere from ferocious, childlike alien miners.

Q 05/05

Which fictional detective solves the Victorian mystery of a banker's damaged beryl coronet?

A) Hercule Poirot

B) Sherlock Holmes

C) Father Brown

D) C. Auguste Dupin

Answer · why

B) Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes clears the banker's son by reading footprints in the snow, in one of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...