1. James Prescott _______ was an English physicist and brewer. After he took over the family brewery, his scientific inquisitiveness led him to discover many laws which are still in use in physics. In honour of his work, the SI unit of heat was named after him as what?
2. Which is the only temperature that is the same, both on the Fahrenheit scale and the centigrade scale? Meaning, regardless of which scale you are using, you are feeling the same chill!
3. Capsaicin is a waxy compound found only in plants, and is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue it comes into contact with, probably as a deterrent against certain mammals and fungi. The amount of Capsaicin determines what factor of something we Indians love?
4. In the Bible, this essential element of life is called brimstone and apparently hell smells of this. Indian alchemists were using it to make rasaśāstra in the 8th century. What is this element that when burnt melts to a blood red liquid while emitting a bright blue flame?
5. Hephaestus is the Greek god of fire, including the fire of volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in ancient religion and myth. The chemical process of converting natural rubber into a more durable material (discovered accidentally!) is named after his Roman counterpart. Who is the Roman god of fire and what is the process?
6. Milk taken straight from a cow might contain Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other more heat-resistant of the non-spore-forming, disease-causing micro organisms. By heating to 72°C, and holding for 15 seconds, the treatment destroys most of the micro organisms that cause milk to spoil and thus prolongs the storage life of milk. This process is named after a French scientist who used the same method to heat beer and wine to preserve them better. Who was this visionary scientist and what is the process called?
7. ‘The Heat is On’ is a hit song from the movie Beverly Hills Cop . It was composed and sung by Glenn Frey, who used to be in a globally renowned American rock band. The song is the highest charting song from anyone who used to be in that band. The band is named after a type of animal whose scientific name is ‘Aquila’. What band is this, whose most famous song is heard in and is about hotels?
8. The safe level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is 350 parts per million (ppm). This March, global levels of CO2 passed 400 ppm. The last time CO2 levels were this high, humans didn’t even exist! CO2 traps heat inside the atmosphere and in turn heats up the air near the surface. This is exactly what we artificially create in a certain gardening resource. Because the effect of CO2 resembles that, what is it (and other gases that do this) known as?
9. This ubiquitous Indian spice mix usually has black and white peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black and green cardamom pods, bay leaf, cumin and asafoetida. The word it is known by refers to the fact that these spices are believed to elevate body temperature in Ayurvedic medicine. What spice mixture is this?
10. Sabeer Bhatia launched this service on July 4, 1996, symbolising “freedom” from ISP-based email and the ability to access a user’s inbox from anywhere in the world. The name was chosen as it included the letters HTML, the mark-up language used to create web pages. What was this revolutionary service and what is it known as now?
Answers
1. Joule
2. Minus 40
3. Spice levels in food
4. Sulphur
5. Vulcan and vulcanisation
6. Louis Pasteur. The process is pasteurisation
7. Eagles
8. Greenhouse gas. (Visit www.co2.earth for more info on this troubling issue)
9. Garam masala
10. HoTMaiL, now known as Microsoft Outlook
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’.
