Q 01/05

Which part of an apple contains amygdalin, a compound that can release cyanide when crushed and digested?

A) Skin

B) Seeds

C) Stalk

D) Flesh

Answer · why

B) Seeds

Seeds hold only a tiny amount, and the US National Library of Medicine's hazardous substances database records no case of poisoning from eating them.

Q 02/05

Hydrogen cyanide is often said to smell like which food, although some people cannot detect the odor at all?

A) Rotten eggs

B) Overripe bananas

C) Raw garlic

D) Bitter almonds

Answer · why

D) Bitter almonds

Bitter almonds is the classic comparison, but the ability to smell hydrogen cyanide comes down to a genetic trait, so many people get no warning from ...

Q 03/05

In 1910, finding the cyanide-related gas cyanogen in the tail of which comet led to sales of anti-comet pills?

A) Halley

B) Encke

C) Donati

D) Biela

Answer · why

A) Halley

Halley's Comet swept Earth through its tail that May, and despite astronomers' reassurances people panic-bought gas masks along with the quack pills.

Q 04/05

Which painkiller was laced with potassium cyanide in the 1982 Chicago poisonings that reshaped medicine packaging?

A) Anacin

B) Bufferin

C) Tylenol

D) Motrin

Answer · why

C) Tylenol

Tylenol's maker recalled an estimated 31 million bottles, and tamper-resistant packaging followed. Nobody has ever been charged with the poisonings.

Q 05/05

Which British crime writer poisoned her characters' champagne in the 1945 mystery novel Sparkling Cyanide?

A) Dorothy L. Sayers

B) Agatha Christie

C) Josephine Tey

D) Margery Allingham

Answer · why

B) Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie learned her poisons by working in hospital dispensaries during both world wars, and they turn up in more than half of her novels.