The Big 2022 Science Quiz: 22 Science Trivia Questions

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope, a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The $10-billion observatory rocketed from French Guiana on South America’s northeastern coast on Dec. 25, 2021. The Webb Telescope is on a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) search to find light from the first stars, galaxies, and hints of life.

Who was James Webb?

James E. Webb was the first NASA Administrator, serving from Feb. 1961 to Oct.1968.

Flue effect, also known as stack effect or chimney effect, is when heated air rises in a shaft, like the one created by two open doors at the Jan. 10, 2022, Bronx fire. Seventeen people were killed from inhaling smoke pouring through a malfunctioning door and spreading up to the top of the 19-story building.

Benzene is found in the air, contained in motor fuels, and used by industrial producers to make plastics and resins. Exposure to high levels of the chemical can cause illness, including an increased risk of leukemia.

Is there benzene in my shampoo?

Procter & Gamble recalled 32 of its dry shampoo and conditioner products on Dec. 21, 2021. after detecting benzene in some of them. The voluntary recall includes aerosol products from Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, and others. P&G sold the recalled products in stores and online in the United States. The company stated that benzene is not an ingredient in any of its products.

About one in 10 people in the US, and 12% of the world population, suffer from kidney stones over their lifetime.

Are Kidney Stones Connected to the Climate Crisis?

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that the number of people suffering from kidney stones will increase between 2.2% and 3.9% by the end of the century because of rising temperatures due to the climate crisis – leading to a significant rise in health costs.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy from the Sun. According to NASA, flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of a mid-level solar flare on Jan. 20, 2022. Watch it here.

Jonah’s icefish is an antarctic deep water fish. The name Jonah refers to the Old Testament whale story, alluding to how this type of icefish was discovered (in the stomach of a whale). Icefish absorb the oxygen-rich Antarctic waters through their skin. They thrive in temperatures just above freezing temperatures with massive hearts and transparent blood because they lack hemoglobin and red blood cells.

What is the largest fish breeding colony ever discovered?

A breeding colony of Jonah’s icefish (Neopagetopsis ionah) globally unprecedented in scale has been discovered in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. In a paper published Jan. 13, 2022, in Current Biology, scientists estimated the colony of Jonah’s icefish stretches across 92 square miles (240 square km), totaling 60 million active nests — the largest fish breeding colony ever discovered.

Orcas, known as killer whales, are, in fact, members of the same family as dolphins (the toothed whales family of oceanic dolphins). The Blue, the Gray, and the Fin whales belong to the family Balaenidae, AKA the right whales.

Can orcas make a meal out of an adult blue whale?

In a paper published Jan. 21, 2022, in the journal Marine Mammal Science, scientists confirm for the first time through firsthand observation the first three records of groups of killer whales killing and eating blue whales near Southwestern Australia. While Blue whales are commonly between 70 and 80 feet and weigh up to 150 tons, Orcas can reach lengths of 30 feet and weigh up to four tons.

On Jan. 31, 2022, researchers unveiled the world’s most extensive forest database, comprising more than 44 million individual trees at more than 100,000 sites in 90 countries – helping them calculate that Earth has roughly 73,300 tree species. South America, home to the Amazon rainforest and Andean forests, is populated with 43% of the planet’s tree species. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Saxaul trees, commonly known by their Arabic name Al-Ghadha, produce seeds only as they become drier. The saxaul can survive for months without water and thrives where temperatures soar to 58 degrees Celsius (136 F). Guinness World Records recognized Saudi Arabia’s Unaizah park as the world’s largest saxaul botanic garden, stretching over 172 sq km (66.41 sq miles). As part of the Saudi government’s green initiative to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, and land degradation, the Al-Ghadha environmental association plans to plant 250,000 drought-resistant Saxaul trees during 2022 in Unaizah.

The emperor is the world’s largest penguin and one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica. The emperor penguin is at severe risk of extinction in the next 30 to 40 years as a result of climate change, according to biologist Marcela Libertelli of the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA).

CERN is the European Center for Nuclear Research, home to the world-famous particle accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) –  that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle in 2012. Now scientists at CERN say they have observed a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks,” adding to the list of new hadrons found at the LHC. The particle accelerator was successfully restarted in July 2022.

In Africa, monkeypox mainly spread to people by infected wild animals in limited outbreaks. In Europe and America, 99% of all monkeypox cases were in men. Of those, 98% involved men who have sex with men.

How many people have been affected so far?

According to the US Centers for Disease Control, more than 71,096 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 107 countries since May 2022.

Did WHO declare a monkeypox global emergency?

The World Health Organization chief said on July 23, 2022, that the monkeypox outbreak in over 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that qualifies as a global emergency. He called for the world to “act together in solidarity” regarding the distribution of treatments, tests, and vaccines for monkeypox.

The immortal jellyfish and the turritopsis nutricula (a type of hydra) are the only two biologically immortal animal species known to science.

How Come?

Scientists at the Spanish University of Oviedo mapped the genetic sequence of the immortal jellyfish, able to repeatedly revert to an immature stage after reproduction. The study, published on Aug. 29, 2022, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the immortal jellyfish genome may be better at copying and repairing DNA and maintaining the ends of chromosomes intact.

How is that different from human DNA?

In humans and other species, the ends of chromosomes become so short with age that the cell can no longer divide successfully and dies.

Known as brain-eating amoeba, the rare and deadly Naegleria fowleri lives in warm, fresh water and can enter the body through the nose, ultimately reaching brain tissue and destroying it. As a result of climate change, the amoeba is now showing up in northern and western parts of the US, where it is not typically found.

Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, while millipedes have two. Typically millipedes have about 100 to 200 legs, while centipedes have as many as 382.

Is there a creature with 1,000 feet?

Scientists led by Virginia Tech entomologist Paul Marek have discovered millipede possessing 1,306 legs (pictured) – more than any known kind. The threadlike pale-colored millipede reaches about 3-1/2 inches (95 mm) long and about four-hundredths of an inch (0.95 mm) wide. The creature is equipped with a conical head, beak-shaped mouth, and extensive antennae – likely one of its only sources of sensory input because it lacks eyes, according to the research published in the journal Scientific Reports on Dec. 16, 2021. The Eumillipes Persephone resides underground in Western Australia.

On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA’s asteroid-striking mission DART – short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test – hit a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (11.3 million kilometers) from Earth at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). The unprecedented attempt to change the asteroid’s path could potentially someday save Earth from a deadly impact.

The James Webb Space Telescope captured the first clear view of Neptune’s rings in over 30 years. The image of the ice giant, 30 times farther away from the Sun than Earth, was released on Sept. 21, 2022.

Stephan’s Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies best known for being featured in the classic holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The Quintet was part of the first batch of images released from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.

What’s in the picture?

With its infrared and high resolution,  the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope shows sparkling clusters of millions of young stars. The image also captures tails of gas, dust, and stars being pulled from several galaxies due to gravitational interactions and the vast shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.

Juno, NASA’s spacecraft orbiting Jupiter since 2016, flew within 219 miles (352 kilometers) of Jupiter’s moon Europa’s surface on Sept. 29, 2022, at a speed of more than 30,000 mph. The spacecraft made the closest observation of Jupiter’s ice-covered moon since Jan. 2000.

What am I seeing?

The image shows long fractures running across the bright, icy surface – Fractures that indicate that an ocean lies beneath the ice of Europa, causing the rupture through stress due to rising and falling tides.

Poseidon’s ribbon weed, or Posidonia australis, found in Shark Bay, off the western end of Australia, is the world’s largest plant. The seagrass — not to be confused with seaweed and algae — spreads at least 180 km (77 square miles), about the size of Cincinnati. A new study published on June 1, 2022, in Proceedings of the Royal Society, shows that Shark Bay’s Poseidon’s ribbon weed colony is one giant organism that has been cloning for about 4,500 years, the largest known example of a clone in any environment on Earth.

Is it the largest organism on Earth?

Utah’s Pando, a clonal colony of 40,000 aspen trees connected by their roots, is the former “heaviest known organism.” covering an area of about 500 square meters (0.16 square miles) and weighing 6,000 tonnes. But the Humongous Fungus is probably even more enormous, weaving a web of mycelial tendrils (the root network of mushrooms) covering 3.7 square miles (9.6 square km) of Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. Scientists calculate it could weigh at least 7,500 tons and maybe up to 35,000 tons, making it the world’s most massive living organism.

Ocean snow is a shower of usually biological debris that falls from higher in the water – sometimes for weeks – before reaching the ocean’s bottom. For millions of years, the debris has delivered flecks from plant and animal remains mucus, dust, microbes, and the ocean’s carbon to the seafloor.

What’s wrong with marine snow?

An April 4, 2022, report in the New York Times identifies marine snowfall as increasingly being contaminated by microplastics, eventually settling on the seafloor in a layer of plastic that might affect Earth’s cooling process.

The wax worm is a larval moth that feeds on wax produced by bees as they build honeycombs. A Spanish national research council (CSIC) study found that two enzymes in the caterpillar’s saliva quickly break down polyethylene, the world’s most widely used plastic. Nature Communications published the study.