Q 01/05

Barack Obama's parents met in 1960 at the University of Hawaii in a basic class in which language?

A) Swahili

B) Japanese

C) Russian

D) Hawaiian

Answer · why

C) Russian

Russian was the course where Ann Dunham met Barack Obama Sr., who had arrived from Kenya the year before as the university's first African student.

Q 02/05

The Kāneʻohe Bay home of UH's marine biology lab appears in the opening of which 1960s sitcom?

A) Gilligan's Island

B) McHale's Navy

C) I Dream of Jeannie

D) F Troop

Answer · why

A) Gilligan's Island

Gilligan's Island used Coconut Island, in Kāneʻohe Bay, for its opening sequence. Businessman Edwin Pauley gave part of it to the university in 1948 a...

Q 03/05

ALOHAnet, switched on at the University of Hawaii in 1971, paved the way for what?

A) GPS

B) Barcodes

C) Touchscreens

D) Wi-Fi

Answer · why

D) Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi still relies on the trick ALOHAnet pioneered: devices share one channel and simply resend when their signals collide. Ethernet borrowed the same...

Q 04/05

Soon after Dolly the sheep, a University of Hawaii lab's 'Honolulu technique' cloned which animals?

A) Goats

B) Mice

C) Cats

D) Cows

Answer · why

B) Mice

Mice from Ryuzo Yanagimachi's lab began with Cumulina, named for the cumulus cells she was cloned from. More than fifty followed, across three generat...

Q 05/05

Robert Ballard, a University of Hawaii geophysics graduate, located which famous shipwreck in 1985?

A) Titanic

B) Endurance

C) Mary Rose

D) Andrea Doria

Answer · why

A) Titanic

Titanic made Ballard a household name, but as a Hawaii graduate student in the 1960s he spent his time training porpoises and whales.