Q 01/05

The pale skin that usually comes with red hair helps the body get enough of which nutrient?

A) Iron

B) Iodine

C) Vitamin B12

D) Vitamin D

Answer · why

D) Vitamin D

Vitamin D: skin makes it from sunlight, and pale skin needs less sun to make enough, which may be why red hair, rare worldwide, is commonest on Europe...

Q 02/05

Erik the Red, the Viking probably named for his red hair, founded the first Norse settlement on which island?

A) Iceland

B) Greenland

C) Newfoundland

D) Shetland

Answer · why

B) Greenland

Greenland: banished from Iceland after a string of killings, Erik spent his exile exploring the island, then gave it an inviting name in the hope that...

Q 03/05

Which pigment gives red hair its colour?

A) Carotene

B) Haemoglobin

C) Pheomelanin

D) Eumelanin

Answer · why

C) Pheomelanin

Pheomelanin: in most people a receptor on the pigment cells switches production over to dark eumelanin, but in redheads that switch fails, so the redd...

Q 04/05

What type of inheritance lets two dark-haired parents have a red-haired child?

A) Autosomal co-dominant

B) X-linked dominant

C) Mitochondrial

D) Autosomal recessive

Answer · why

D) Autosomal recessive

Autosomal recessive: each parent can silently carry one copy of the variant, so red hair can skip generations and then resurface, which is why forecas...

Q 05/05

Which Holy Roman Emperor did Italians nickname Barbarossa, meaning 'red beard'?

A) Charlemagne

B) Otto the Great

C) Frederick I

D) Charles V

Answer · why

C) Frederick I

Frederick I: the red-bearded German emperor set out on the Third Crusade but drowned in a river in Anatolia before reaching the Holy Land, and most of...