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General knowledge · 12 questions
Strange but True
No invented facts here. The challenge is spotting the real explanation.
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Question 1 of 12
Why can pieces of pumice float on water?
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- 1. Why can pieces of pumice float on water?
- A. They repel all water
- B. They contain many gas-filled spaces (answer)
- C. They are made of frozen lava foam
- D. They generate lifting bubbles
Gas-filled spaces can make pumice less dense than water. Pieces can eventually sink as gas escapes. - 2. A narwhal's long tusk is usually which structure?
- A. An elongated left upper canine tooth (answer)
- B. A right lower incisor
- C. A keratin horn
- D. An extension of the nasal bone
The familiar tusk is a canine tooth growing through the upper lip, usually on the left. - 3. How many main foliage leaves does a Welwitschia plant keep growing throughout its life?
- A. One
- B. Four
- C. Dozens each year
- D. Two (answer)
Its two long-lived leaves keep growing and split into strips, making the plant look as though it has many leaves. - 4. Which metal melts at about 30°C, low enough for body heat to melt it?
- A. Copper
- B. Iron
- C. Gallium (answer)
- D. Aluminium
Gallium melts at about 29.76°C, below normal body temperature. A warm hand can supply enough heat to melt it. - 5. Which takes longer on Venus: one complete spin or one orbit of the Sun?
- A. They take the same time
- B. The complete spin takes longer (answer)
- C. The spin takes only a few hours
- D. The orbit takes about twice as long
Venus rotates once in about 243 Earth days but orbits the Sun in about 225. A sunrise-to-sunrise day is different. - 6. Where do seahorse embryos develop after transfer from the female?
- A. In the male's brood pouch (answer)
- B. In a nest beneath a rock
- C. In the female's gill chamber
- D. On the male's dorsal fin
The male carries embryos in a pouch and releases the young when they hatch. - 7. What is an axolotl retaining juvenile features into reproductive adulthood called?
- A. Parthenogenesis
- B. Aposematism
- C. Diapause
- D. Neoteny (answer)
Axolotls normally retain external gills and other juvenile features while becoming capable of breeding. - 8. How does the sandbox tree, Hura crepitans, launch its seeds?
- A. Its leaves catapult them in rain
- B. Its roots pump them underground
- C. Its ripe fruit bursts explosively (answer)
- D. Its flowers fling them before fruit forms
The fruit bursts and launches seeds. High-speed video shows the flying seeds can spin backwards. - 9. Which metal makes the oxygen-carrying pigment in octopus blood blue?
- A. Cobalt
- B. Copper (answer)
- C. Manganese
- D. Iron
Octopuses use copper-containing haemocyanin rather than iron-containing haemoglobin. - 10. Which feature most quickly distinguishes a slow worm from a snake?
- A. It can blink (answer)
- B. It has scales
- C. It flicks its tongue
- D. It moves without legs
Slow worms are legless lizards with eyelids. Snakes lack movable eyelids. - 11. Where does a male platypus deliver venom from?
- A. Grooved front teeth
- B. Tail spines
- C. Forefoot claws
- D. Hind-limb spurs (answer)
Male platypuses possess venom-delivering spurs on their hind limbs. - 12. Which sea-cucumber structure is reduced to tiny elements called ossicles?
- A. Its digestive tract
- B. Its jaws
- C. Its skeleton (answer)
- D. Its respiratory tree
Tiny calcium-carbonate ossicles replace the conspicuous rigid skeleton seen in many other echinoderms.
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