| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| This scientist sometimes names the theoretical perpetual motion machine called a Brownian Ratchet alongside Marian Smoluchowski, though this man demonstrated that such a device was impossible. This scientist inspired the field of nanotechnology with his lecture "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." This scientist’s early 1960s Caltech lectures have since been collected as a best-selling physics textbook. For the point, name this American physicist who demonstrated path integrals on his eponymous diagrams. | Richard Phillips Feynman |
| Pliny the Elder wrote that this mineral was "opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold," making it emblematic of success in old Jewish traditions. The Indus River Valley civilization established the trading colony of Shortugai near mines of this resource on the Oxus River, specifically the Sar-i Sang mine in what is now far-eastern Afghanistan. This resource was used by Vermeer to create the headscarf in the Girl with a Pearl Earring, as well as the eyes of the Mask of Tutankhamun. Historically used to create ultramarine pigment, for the point, what is this deep-blue rock? | lapis lazuli |
| Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman were the first to predict this feature. This feature was discovered after pigeon droppings were removed from the Horn Antenna. This feature, which originated in the epoch of recombination, was investigated by COBE and WMAP. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered this feature at Bell Labs, finding it has an almost perfect blackbody spectrum with a temperature of 2.7 Kelvin. For the point, name this radiation left over from the Big Bang. | Cosmic microwave background radiation (accept CMB or CMBR) |
| This mathematician's Crelle" paper proposed the concept of bijective functions. This man’s namesake function, sometimes called the Devil’s Staircase, is continuous but not absolutely continuous. This mathematician designated aleph-null to represent the cardinality of the set of all integers, and he proved that rational numbers are uncountable in his diagonalization qrgument. For the point, name this German mathematician who founded set theory. | Georg Cantor |
| In a commentary on this work, Proclus wrote that its author collected works from Eudoxus and perfected those of Thaeatetus. Isidore of Miletus may have written much of the 15th book of this work. Oxyrhynchus 29 contains a statement from this book with an unlabeled diagram that deals with a straight line cut into equal and unequal segments. For centuries, mathematicians struggled to prove the fifth postulate of this book, the parallel postulate. For the point, name this foundational work of Greek geometry written by Euclid. | Euclid's Elements (accept Stoicheia) |
| A sample collected from this person was the focus of a mass "production lab" led by Dr. Russell Brown at the Tuskegee Institute. Stanley Gartler was the first to discover that a sample derived from this person had contaminated numerous existing cell cultures, as described in a 2010 book by Rebecca Skloot about her "immortal life." In 1951, George Otto Gey first cultured a cell line that had been taken from a carcinoma on this woman's cervix. For the point, name this African-American woman who was the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line. | Henrietta Lacks (or Loretta Pleasant; prompt on "HeLa" or "HeLa cells") |
| This experiment was recorded in a notebook that contains the concerning annotation "error high will not use." Felix Ehrenhaft critiqued many aspects of this experiment, which was performed in Ryerson Laboratory. This experiment used a perfume atomizer, which was the idea of graduate student Harvey Fletcher. This 1913 experiment measured a certain value to be 1.592 times 10 to the negative 19 coulombs. For the point, name this experiment that determined the electric charge of an electron and was performed by Robert Millikan. | Oil drop experiment (or Millikan-Fletcher oil drop experiment before “Millikan” is mentioned) |
| In 1896, Albert Hankin first detected these things after noticing the anti-cholera properties of the Ganges River. Félix d'Hérelle used these entities to treat certain infections, despite not knowing their structure. In 1952, these things were used to demonstrate that DNA transmitted genetic information by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase since these things passed on DNA to the E. coli they infected. For the point, name these viruses with prokaryotic hosts. | bacteriophages (accept phages; prompt on "viruses") |
| In his Nutrix Noverca, this thinker used the example of wild animals to argue against the use of wet nurses, possibly inspiring the name for "mammals" in the process. Daniel Solander and Carl Peter Thunberg were two of this man’s so-called "apostles." Because the only human he ever examined was himself, this man is the ICZN’s type specimen for Homo sapiens. This thinker’s Systema Naturae is often considered the founding document of modern taxonomy. For the point, name this Swedish naturalist who devised binomial nomenclature. | Carl Linnaeus (accept Carl von Linné) |
| Programs for this system used to be tested as .dex files on the Dalvik virtual machine. In 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded to promote the use of this operating system. In 2019, Kotlin was announced as the preferred language for app developers for this system, which makes use of the APK file format. Until its tenth version, this operating system named its major software releases after confectioneries such as KitKat and Oreo. The Pixel line of phones runs using, for the point, what mobile operating system created by Google? | Android (accept Android OS) |
| The Duke of Tuscany patronized a scientist who once claimed that these astronomical objects represented ears. That man claimed that one location was a three- body system and that these related entities were thus planets. The gaps in these entities were named after a fortifications inspector under Pope Alexander VII named Giovanni Cassini. Christiaan Huygens offered a disk-based explanation of these entities made of ice. For the point, name these solid formations that surround a large gas giant. | rings of Saturn (prompt on partial answer; prompt on "planetary rings" or similar answers) |
| The oldest known mass example of this process is located at the Sumerian site of Choga Mami. Bali’s subak system for this process was also used to create artificial ecosystems. The qanats of Iran are possibly the oldest method for this process still used today. The micro form of this process was developed in the 1970s through the use of microtubing. The "drip" type of this process limits evaporation via application near the root zone. For the point, name this agricultural process of supplying water to crops often done with canals. | Irrigation (accept Watering or water management before “water” is read) |
| The statement that "Given enough eyeballs, all of [these things] are shallow" is named Linus's Law in honor of the creator of the Linux operating system. In the 1980s, a critical race condition causing one of these things in the Therac-25 machine led to multiple deaths via radiation poisoning. Potential issues with date formatting caused the "Y2K" example of these things, which got their name after Grace Hopper found a moth stuck inside a relay of the Mark II computer. Patches are updates that fix, for the point, what errors in a computer program? | bugs (or software bugs; accept errors before mentioned; accept glitches; or faults; or failures) |
| Richard Henry Brunton was nicknamed the father of Japanese examples of these structures. Henry Winstanley designed one of the first modern ones of these structures that was swept away in the Great Storm of 1703, located by Eddystone. Argand lamps were installed within one of these structures designed by Louis de Foix, the Cordouan. George Meade constructed some of these structures at Atlantic Beach and Cape May. Automatic lamp changers rendered employees at some of these places called "wickies" obsolete. For the point, name these towers that aid in maritime navigation. | lighthouses |
| This man was criticized for allowing the spread of the Caulerpa "killer algae" in the Mediterranean as head of a Monaco-based museum. This man worked with Louis Malle to produce the first documentary to win a Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, titled The Silent World. This man invented Aqua-Lung, the first open-circuit Scuba set, and popularized the Great Blue Hole of Belize through expeditions on the ship Calypso. For the point, name this French oceanographer. | Jacques-Yves Cousteau |
| The first of these items ever created was an octagon-shaped animation named Quantum which was made by Kevin McCoy and released on the platform Monegraph. In 2021, the Kings of Leon record When You See Yourself became the first album to be released as one of these items. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of cartoon monkey pictures that are stored in these things and traded on the Ethereum blockchain. For the point, name these digital assets that represent ownership of real-world items which cannot be replicated or interchanged. | non-fungible tokens (or NFTs; accept monetized graphics; prompt on "tokens"; do not accept or prompt on "crypto" or "cryptocurrency") |
| Haitz's law forecasts that these devices go down in price by 10 times and up in capacity by 20 times each decade. The first commercial one of these devices from 1962 used a gallium arsenide crystal. Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, and Hiroshi Amano won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for creating one of these devices that emits a blue wavelength, allowing them to produce white light when coupled with red and green. For the point, what devices produce light when a current flows through a semiconductor? | light-emitting diodes (or LEDs) |
| From 2002 to 2005, the European Union launched the CAPECON project to develop these devices. Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres y Quevedo introduced an early one of these devices called the "Telekino." Examples of these devices like the Ryan Model 147 and Ryan AQM-91 were deployed during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Recent types of these devices include the Kargu 2, which in 2020 attacked a human target in Libya. For the point, name these aircraft that operate without any human pilot or crew. | drones (accept unmanned aerial vehicles; accept UAVs) |
| This element's oxide was heated by both Carl Scheele and Joseph Priestley in their discoveries of oxygen gas. An NMR calibration standard containing this element killed scientist Karen Wetterhahn when a drop of it seeped through her glove. Frequent poisoning by this element among milliners gave rise to the phrase "mad as a hatter." Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit created the first glass thermometer containing this element as a sensor. For the point, name this metal symbolized Hg which exists as a liquid at room temperature. | mercury (accept Hg before mention) |
| A chiral example of these compounds is used in a enantio-selective synthesis commonly called BINAP, whose discovery won Ryoji Noyori the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A chromium-containing example of these compounds was named for the Phillips Petroleum Company and is used to produce most of the world's polyethylene. Osmium was largely replaced by iron oxide as this type of substance in the Haber-Bosch process, where it speeds up the reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen. For the point, name these substances that lower the activation energy of chemical reactions. | catalysts (prompt on "ligand") |
| This man’s public reputation was severely damaged when his lock designs were implicated in the Panama Scandal. In 1909, this man created the first open-return wind tunnel. This man designed the metal scaffolding used to support the interior of the Statue of Liberty. This man’s most famous project was designed by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier using a repeating lattice of steel beams arranged into triangles. For the point, name this French engineer who names a steel girder tower made for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. | (Alexandre) Gustave Eiffel |
| In a 2022 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change argued that this feature would not collapse even if the related AMOC did. In an attempt to speed up international shipping, Benjamin Franklin asked Nantucket whaler Timothy Folger to draw a map of this feature. After its discovery by Juan Ponce de León in 1512, this feature was used by Spanish merchant vessels when returning to Europe. For the point, name this ocean current that supplies warm water from North America to Europe. | Gulf Stream |
| This project was photographed extensively by Walker Evans and was used as inspiration for Joseph Stella's futurist paintings. Designed and engineered by John Augustus Roebling, this project's construction caused workers to die of decompression sickness. After 13years of construction, P.T Barnum led 21 elephants across this bridge to prove its structural integrity. The longest suspension bridge of its time, for the point, what historic bridge links Manhattan to a namesake borough on Long Island? | Brooklyn Bridge |
| In 1975, Julian Nott built one of these vehicles using only materials available to Pre- Inca Peruvians, speculating that these vehicles were used in the creation of the Nazca Lines. The first woman to pilot one of these vehicles alone was Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin, who was also the first woman to use a parachute. In 1783, Jean-François de Rozier and Marquis François d'Arlandes made the first untethered flight in one of these vehicles. Chinese sky lanterns were an early inspiration for, for the point, what type of aircraft, which get their buoyancy from heating air? | hot air balloons (prompt on "balloon" alone) |
| With Henry Ford and Harvey S. Firestone, this scientist established a botanical laboratory in Fort Myers, Florida. A popular rumor about this man claims he authorized the killing of Topsy, an elephant at Coney Island, to one-up George Westinghouse. This man established the world's first film studio, Black Maria, in the town of West Orange, and this man formerly employed Nikola Tesla. For the point, name this inventor and "Wizard of Menlo Park" who pioneered the phonograph and electric light bulb. | Thomas Alva Edison |
| Morris Jesup funded a wagon that this scientist used as a mobile classroom to educate sharecroppers about his research. This man collaborated with Henry Ford on plans for a car made of soybean-derived plastic. In one of his 44 "bulletins," this scientist proposed crop rotation as a method to improve soil depleted from cotton farming and boll weevil blights, which he researched at a university founded by Booker T. Washington. For the point, name this scientist at the Tuskegee Institute who developed over a hundred uses for sweet potatoes and peanuts. | George Washington Carver |
| The digestive tracts of these animals were surgically opened to create namesake "pouches" by a scientist who later won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine. These animals were placed inside a shuttle-box and administered electrical shocks in an experiment that Martin Seligman used to develop his theory of learned helplessness. One scientist observed a "psychic secretion" from these animals after they began to associate being fed with an auditory stimulus, demonstrating classical conditioning. For the point, name these animals trained to salivate at the sound of a bell by Ivan Pavlov. | dogs (or canines) |
| An example of this technology found at the Bronze Age Must Farm is the oldest example in Britain and was located next to a horse spine, suggesting it may have been agricultural. Although used in children’s toys, this technology was never used for work in Mesoamerica. The Sintashta Culture of the Eurasian steppe is believed to have invented the lightweight spoked form of this technology. This technology comes in fixed and free types depending on if the axle rotates. For the point, name this Neolithic technology used to spin pottery and move carts. | wheels |
| These structures are believed to be the identity of the so-called "granules" or "bioblasts" described by Richard Altmann in 1890. These structures, which were named by Carl Benda, were first discovered by Albert von Kölliker in insect muscles. The origin of these organelles, like plastids, is described by endosymbiont theory, which holds that these organelles were once free-living bacteria. This organelle is known to possess a circular genome independent of the nucleus. For the point, name this organelle that Philip Siekevitz dubbed the "powerhouse of the cell." | mitochondria (or mitochondrion) |
| Polish physicist Georges Nomarski was the first scientist to apply differential interference contrast to these devices. In1893, August Köhler discovered an illumination technique central to modern examples of these devices. These devices were first applied to biology by Marcello Malpighi, the "father of histology." A compound one of these devices by Galileo was known as the occhiolino, or little eye, and was inspired by focusing a telescope on nearby objects. For the point, name these devices used to view objects too small for the naked eye. | Microscopes |
| The Centralia fire has been burning since 1962 in a location that harvested this resource. Shanxi province has historically helped make China the world's top producer of this resource. The Lehigh Valley was formerly the top producer of this resource's anthracite variant, and this resource harvested from collieries was also produced in Belgium's Pays Noir and West Virginia. For the point, name this black rock used as a fossil fuel. | coal (accept anthracite coal) |