Q 01/05

Diatoms generate an estimated 20 to 50 percent of which gas produced on Earth each year?

A) Methane

B) Oxygen

C) Ozone

D) Hydrogen

Answer · why

B) Oxygen

Oxygen is a by-product of their photosynthesis, and diatoms also make up nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans.

Q 02/05

A 1961 incident in Capitola, later linked to a diatom toxin, helped inspire which Hitchcock film?

A) Psycho

B) Vertigo

C) The Birds

D) Rear Window

Answer · why

C) The Birds

The Birds drew on the night disoriented seabirds slammed into Capitola homes. Toxic algae were later blamed, though nobody knew that in the 1960s.

Q 03/05

Alfred Nobel soaked unstable nitroglycerin into diatomaceous earth to create which safer explosive?

A) Dynamite

B) Gelignite

C) Cordite

D) Guncotton

Answer · why

A) Dynamite

Dynamite was patented in 1867 after Nobel found the porous powder made nitroglycerin stable enough to transport and handle.

Q 04/05

Dust from ancient diatom shells crosses the Atlantic to fertilize the Amazon from which desert?

A) Kalahari

B) Atacama

C) Namib

D) Sahara

Answer · why

D) Sahara

Sahara dust reaching the Amazon comes in large part from the Bodélé Depression in Chad, an ancient lake bed whose diatom-rich sediment carries phospho...

Q 05/05

Forensic scientists test a body's tissues for diatoms to help confirm which cause of death?

A) Poisoning

B) Hypothermia

C) Drowning

D) Suffocation

Answer · why

C) Drowning

Drowning is suggested when diatoms matching the local water turn up inside a body, because their hard shells do not readily decay and never occur ther...