General Knowledge TestYou too can be a polymath.

• History• Geography• Literature• Language• Politics• Crime• Biomaterials• Genetics• Music

The 3 stages of scientific discovery

• 1. They deny it is true• 2. They deny it is important• 3…… What is the 3rd stage?

• What is the difference between an observation, 2 observations, 3 observations, many more than 3 observations?

History• Did Pierre Curie die of-

– Radiation sickness– Being shot by his wife

Marie because he plagiarised her work

– Being run over by a ‘bus’– Old age?

• What were Trevisthick and Huskisson famous for?

Geography• What land lies due south of Iceland?• What country is the furthest east of the current

‘European Community’?• What is the Southernmost state of the USA?• What country is represented by the symbol?

And why?

Literature

• Who was the author of – The formation of vegetable mould through the action

of worms– Expressions of emotions in man and animals– The power of movement in plants?

(but these are not his two most famous books)

• And what related topic was first published (20 years earlier) in the journal ‘Naval Timber and Arboriculture’ by Patrick Mathew?.

Language

• What is the Arabic word for ‘desert’?

• What is the Chinese word for a ‘big wind’?

• What is the Czech word for ‘forced labour’?

• Where is ‘Mesopotamia’ and what number base did they use?

Politics

• Osama Bin Ladem is– Of the left– Of the right?

• Estimate the relative intelligence of– The President of the USA– The President of Europe?

• Where are the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’?

Crime

• Where is the bar code on a Euro note?

• What do New York cops die of?

• Where is the unique identifier on a mobile phone?

• Are mobile phones dangerous for your health?

Biomaterials• Is a sponge

– Animal– Vegetable– Mineral– Synthetic (e.g. a

plastic)?

• And what is a lichen (the green stuff on the north side of trees)?

Genetics

• Since you have two parents and each of them had two parents, how many ancestors would you have had, approximately, in the year 1000 (assuming that a generation is about 25 years), i.e. 40 generation ago?

• Why can this number not be correct?

• And what did Mendel originally study?

Music

• Brian May the lead guitar of the pop group the ‘Queen’ was originally– A journalist for a pop music magazine– An artist (painter)– Unemployed and uneducated– A PhD in astrophysics?