Q 01/05

Which drug did Alexander Fleming discover in 1928 after mould spoiled a culture plate left out over his holiday?

A) Streptomycin

B) Tetracycline

C) Penicillin

D) Quinine

Answer · why

C) Penicillin

Penicillin began as an accident: Fleming came back from a family holiday to find bacteria destroyed around a stray fungus, and is said to have remarke...

Q 02/05

Apollo 15's David Scott dropped a falcon feather on the Moon alongside which object to show both fall equally fast?

A) Hammer

B) Golf ball

C) Moon rock

D) Wrench

Answer · why

A) Hammer

The hammer and the feather hit the lunar dust together, because the Moon has almost no atmosphere to drag on the lighter object.

Q 03/05

Clever Hans, who amazed 1900s Germany by tapping out answers to arithmetic problems, was what kind of animal?

A) Parrot

B) Monkey

C) Poodle

D) Horse

Answer · why

D) Horse

The horse was not doing sums: in 1907 psychologist Oskar Pfungst showed Hans was reacting to involuntary cues in his trainer's body language.

Q 04/05

James Lind ran one of the first clinical trials in 1747, giving sailors oranges and lemons to treat which disease?

A) Rickets

B) Scurvy

C) Beriberi

D) Pellagra

Answer · why

B) Scurvy

Scurvy was the target: Lind put twelve sick sailors on the same diet in six pairs, and the pair given oranges and a lemon were all but well after six ...

Q 05/05

In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis slashed deaths in a Vienna maternity clinic by ordering doctors to do what?

A) Wear face masks

B) Boil their instruments

C) Wash their hands

D) Open the windows

Answer · why

C) Wash their hands

Wash their hands, he insisted, in chlorinated lime: mortality fell from 18% to under 2%, yet offended colleagues mocked him and he died in an asylum i...