Q 01/05

Which soil animals did Charles Darwin study for decades before making them the subject of his last scientific book?

A) Centipedes

B) Woodlice

C) Earthworms

D) Millipedes

Answer · why

C) Earthworms

Earthworms even took Darwin on a trip to Stonehenge, where he studied how their castings had slowly buried the great stones.

Q 02/05

In 1938 California oil workers saw which scavenging birds gather wherever a gas line leaked, drawn by a smell of decay?

A) Turkey vultures

B) Common ravens

C) Red-tailed hawks

D) Herring gulls

Answer · why

A) Turkey vultures

Turkey vultures hunt by smell, which is rare among birds: they follow ethyl mercaptan, a gas given off as a carcass starts to rot, and traces of it we...

Q 03/05

The sunken carcasses of which animals, known to marine biologists as falls, can feed deep-sea creatures for decades?

A) Sharks

B) Whales

C) Sea turtles

D) Giant squid

Answer · why

B) Whales

Whales that sink deeper than about 1,000 meters become islands of food on the bare seabed, where scavengers, worms and bacteria take the carcass apart...

Q 04/05

Which food never spoils if stored properly, because its sugar and acidity stop most microbes growing?

A) Maple syrup

B) Molasses

C) Marmalade

D) Honey

Answer · why

D) Honey

Honey traces between 4,700 and 5,500 years old were found on clay vessels in an ancient tomb in Georgia, uncovered while an oil pipeline was being bui...

Q 05/05

Which revolutionary leader's embalmed body has been kept from decaying on public display in Moscow since 1924?

A) Joseph Stalin

B) Leon Trotsky

C) Vladimir Lenin

D) Nikita Khrushchev

Answer · why

C) Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin had company for a while: Joseph Stalin's embalmed body lay beside his from 1953 until 1961, when it was removed and buried by the Kreml...