Science is the quiz round where almost everyone starts with low expectations of themselves and ends up doing better than they thought. Saying you were terrible at science at school is the most common thing I hear before a science round, and it's almost always followed by someone getting at least half the questions right based on things they've picked up entirely outside of formal education. It turns out documentaries, science podcasts, and half-remembered GCSE lessons add up to more retained knowledge than most people give themselves credit for.
Science makes brilliant quiz material because the interesting facts are often counterintuitive. Biology questions in particular tend to produce the most double-takes — the human body does things that seem impossible until you know why. Physics and chemistry have a reputation for being dry, but the specific facts that make good quiz questions — the constants, the records, the discoveries that changed everything — are anything but. And the famous scientists round turns out to be far more interesting than people expect once you get past Newton and his apple.
Fifty questions across five rounds: physics (forces, energy, the fundamental stuff), chemistry (elements, reactions, materials), biology (the human body and living systems), earth science (geology, atmosphere, our planet's behaviour), and famous scientists (the people and moments behind the discoveries). The earth science round catches the most people off guard — it covers things everyone's heard of but rarely had properly explained.
These work for any age group — the biology and earth science sections are accessible enough for younger participants, and the physics and chemistry sections have enough depth to properly test people with a scientific background. The scientists round is the equaliser that brings both groups together.
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Round 1: Physics (Questions 1–10)
1. What is the speed of light in a vacuum, to the nearest thousand kilometres per second?
✓ 300,000 km/s (299,792 km/s)
💡 Light takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to Earth. This means when you look at the Sun, you are seeing it as it was over 8 minutes ago.
2. What is the SI unit of electrical resistance?
✓ Ohm (Ω)
💡 The ohm is named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm, who formulated Ohm's Law in 1827. His law states that the current through a conductor is directly proportional to the voltage across it.
3. Which subatomic particle has a negative charge?
✓ Electron
💡 Electrons were discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1897 during his cathode ray tube experiments. They are roughly 1,836 times lighter than a proton despite carrying the same magnitude of charge.
4. What is Newton's Third Law of Motion?
✓ For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction
💡 Newton's Third Law underpins rocket propulsion — gases expelled downward push the rocket upward with equal force. It was first published in Newton's landmark 1687 work, Principia Mathematica.
5. What is the term for the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another?
✓ Refraction
💡 Refraction is why a straw appears bent when placed in a glass of water. Snell's Law precisely describes how the angle of refraction changes based on the refractive indices of the two media.
6. Which physicist developed the theory of general relativity?
✓ Albert Einstein
💡 Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1915, redefining gravity as the curvature of spacetime caused by mass. Its predictions — including gravitational waves — have been confirmed repeatedly, most famously by LIGO in 2015.
7. What does E=mc² stand for in Einstein's famous equation?
✓ Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared
💡 This equation reveals that mass and energy are interchangeable — even a tiny amount of mass contains an enormous amount of energy. It underpins nuclear reactions, where small mass differences release vast amounts of energy.
8. At what temperature do the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales give the same numerical reading?
✓ -40 degrees
💡 At -40°C and -40°F, both scales converge at exactly the same value. This is the only temperature where the two scales agree, a useful fact rooted in the different offset points of each scale's origin.
9. What is the name of the force that keeps planets in orbit around the Sun?
✓ Gravity (gravitational force)
💡 The gravitational force between two objects decreases with the square of the distance between them — known as the inverse square law. Isaac Newton deduced this relationship after observing the Moon's orbit around Earth.
10. Which colour of visible light has the longest wavelength?
✓ Red
💡 Red light has wavelengths roughly between 620 and 750 nanometres. This is why red is used for warning signals — it scatters less than shorter wavelengths, making it visible at greater distances.
Round 2: Chemistry (Questions 11–20)
11. What is the chemical symbol for gold?
✓ Au
💡 The symbol Au comes from the Latin word "aurum," meaning gold. Gold is one of the few elements found in nature in its pure metallic state, which is why it has been treasured throughout human history.
12. How many elements are in the periodic table as of 2026?
✓ 118
💡 The 118th element, oganesson (Og), was officially named in 2016 after Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian. Only a handful of atoms of oganesson have ever been created, making it one of the rarest substances on Earth.
13. What is the pH of pure water at room temperature?
✓ 7 (neutral)
💡 A pH of 7 means equal concentrations of hydrogen (H⁺) and hydroxide (OH⁻) ions. Pure water is neither acidic nor basic, but even slight contamination from dissolved CO₂ can lower its pH to around 5.6.
14. What is the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere?
✓ Nitrogen (approximately 78%)
💡 Despite being the most abundant atmospheric gas, nitrogen is largely inert at normal temperatures. However, nitrogen-fixing bacteria in soil convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which plants can then use as a nutrient.
15. What is the chemical formula for table salt?
✓ NaCl (sodium chloride)
💡 Sodium and chlorine are both dangerous on their own — sodium ignites in water and chlorine is a toxic gas — yet combined they form harmless, edible table salt. This transformation illustrates a core principle: compounds have entirely different properties from their constituent elements.
16. Which element has the atomic number 1?
✓ Hydrogen
💡 Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, making up roughly 75% of all normal matter by mass. Stars like our Sun are essentially enormous hydrogen fusion reactors, converting hydrogen into helium and releasing tremendous energy in the process.
17. What is the process by which a liquid turns into a gas below its boiling point?
✓ Evaporation
💡 Evaporation occurs at the surface of a liquid when molecules gain enough energy to escape into the gas phase. This is why sweating cools your body — evaporating sweat carries heat energy away from your skin.
18. Which metal is liquid at room temperature?
✓ Mercury
💡 Mercury has a melting point of -38.83°C, making it liquid across the entire range of normal Earth temperatures. It was once widely used in thermometers and blood pressure gauges, though health concerns have led to it being phased out in most medical devices.
19. What type of bond involves the sharing of electron pairs between atoms?
✓ Covalent bond
💡 Covalent bonds are found in most biological molecules, including DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates. The stability of these bonds is what allows complex organic molecules to maintain their structures at the temperatures found in living organisms.
20. What is the name of the process by which iron rusts?
✓ Oxidation (or corrosion)
💡 Rusting is an electrochemical process requiring both oxygen and water — iron will not rust in completely dry air or in water with no dissolved oxygen. The rust (iron oxide) that forms is less dense than iron, which causes it to flake and expose fresh metal beneath.
Round 3: Biology (Questions 21–30)
21. What is the powerhouse of the cell?
✓ Mitochondria
💡 Mitochondria produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the cell's primary energy currency, through a process called oxidative phosphorylation. Fascinatingly, mitochondria have their own DNA, suggesting they were once independent bacteria that merged with early cells in a process called endosymbiosis.
22. What is the name of the process by which plants make food using sunlight?
✓ Photosynthesis
💡 Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen using light energy. It is estimated that plants, algae, and cyanobacteria collectively absorb about 120 billion tonnes of carbon per year through this process.
23. How many chromosomes do humans typically have?
✓ 46 (23 pairs)
💡 Humans have 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs, with one set inherited from each parent. Interestingly, a potato has 48 chromosomes — more than a human — illustrating that chromosome number does not correlate with biological complexity.
24. What is the term for organisms that can make their own food from inorganic sources?
✓ Autotrophs (or producers)
💡 Autotrophs form the base of almost every food chain on Earth. Some autotrophs, called chemotrophs, don't use sunlight but instead derive energy from chemical reactions — these are found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents where sunlight never reaches.
25. What is the largest organ in the human body?
✓ The skin
💡 The skin of an average adult covers around 1.7 to 2 square metres and weighs approximately 3.5 to 4 kg. It serves as a barrier against pathogens, regulates body temperature, and contains sensory receptors for touch, pain, and temperature.
26. Which blood type is known as the universal donor?
✓ O negative (O-)
💡 O negative red blood cells can be transfused into patients of any blood type, making them invaluable in emergency medicine when there is no time to check a patient's blood group. Only about 7% of the UK population has O negative blood.
27. What is the scientific name for the human species?
✓ Homo sapiens
💡 Homo sapiens means "wise man" in Latin, a name given by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Modern humans are the only surviving members of the genus Homo, though we coexisted with at least a dozen other human species during our evolutionary history.
28. What is the function of red blood cells?
✓ To carry oxygen around the body
💡 Red blood cells use a protein called haemoglobin to bind oxygen in the lungs and release it in the body's tissues. A single red blood cell contains approximately 270 million haemoglobin molecules and lives for only about 120 days before being recycled.
29. What is the term for the change in species over time through natural selection?
✓ Evolution
💡 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently developed the theory of evolution by natural selection in the 1850s. Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, which remains one of the most influential scientific works ever written.
30. Which organ in the human body produces insulin?
✓ The pancreas
💡 Insulin is produced by beta cells in clusters called the islets of Langerhans within the pancreas. Discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, insulin transformed diabetes from a fatal disease into a manageable condition.
Round 4: Earth Science (Questions 31–40)
31. What are the three types of rock?
✓ Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
💡 All three rock types are connected by the rock cycle — igneous rocks form from cooled magma, sedimentary rocks form from compressed sediment, and metamorphic rocks form when existing rocks are transformed by heat and pressure. This cycle has been operating continuously for billions of years.
32. What is the name of the layer of Earth we live on?
✓ The crust
💡 The continental crust averages about 35 km thick, while the oceanic crust is much thinner at 5–10 km. Beneath the crust lies the mantle, which extends to a depth of about 2,900 km and makes up about 84% of Earth's total volume.
33. What scale is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes?
✓ The Richter scale (or moment magnitude scale)
💡 The Richter scale, developed by Charles Richter in 1935, is logarithmic — each whole number increase represents a tenfold increase in amplitude. The moment magnitude scale has largely replaced it for scientific use, as it works better for very large earthquakes.
34. What percentage of Earth's surface is covered by water?
✓ Approximately 71%
💡 Despite 71% of Earth's surface being water, around 96.5% of it is saltwater in the oceans. Only about 3.5% is freshwater, and most of that is locked in ice caps and glaciers, making accessible freshwater extremely limited.
35. What causes the seasons on Earth?
✓ The tilt of Earth's axis (approximately 23.5°)
💡 Earth's axial tilt means different parts of the planet receive more direct sunlight at different times of year, not proximity to the Sun. Earth is actually slightly closer to the Sun in January (during the Northern Hemisphere's winter) than in July.
36. What is the name of the supercontinent that existed approximately 300 million years ago?
✓ Pangaea
💡 Pangaea began breaking apart about 200 million years ago, driven by tectonic plate movement. The same forces that split Pangaea continue today — for instance, the Atlantic Ocean is widening by approximately 2.5 cm per year.
37. What is the ozone layer and where is it located?
✓ A region of Earth's stratosphere containing high concentrations of ozone (O₃), 15–35 km above Earth
💡 The ozone layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high-frequency ultraviolet radiation. The discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in 1985 led to the Montreal Protocol, one of the most successful international environmental agreements, resulting in measurable ozone recovery.
38. Which is the world's longest river?
✓ The Nile (though the Amazon is contested)
💡 The Nile, at approximately 6,650 km, has traditionally held the title of world's longest river, but new measurements of the Amazon's source have led some geographers to claim the Amazon is longer at up to 6,992 km. The debate continues due to differences in measuring methodology.
39. What is the term for molten rock below Earth's surface?
✓ Magma
💡 When magma reaches Earth's surface through a volcanic eruption, it is called lava. The temperature of magma typically ranges from 700°C to 1,300°C, and its composition determines the explosivity of the resulting volcanic eruption.
40. How old is Earth, approximately?
✓ Approximately 4.5 billion years old
💡 Scientists determined Earth's age primarily through radiometric dating of rocks, meteorites, and lunar samples. The oldest known Earth rocks are about 4 billion years old, while the oldest minerals (zircon crystals from Australia) have been dated to about 4.4 billion years.
Round 5: Famous Scientists (Questions 41–50)
41. Which scientist is credited with discovering penicillin?
✓ Alexander Fleming
💡 Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 when he noticed mould (Penicillium notatum) killing bacteria on one of his petri dishes. However, it was Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain who developed it into a usable antibiotic in the 1940s — all three shared the 1945 Nobel Prize.
42. Who proposed the heliocentric model of the solar system?
✓ Nicolaus Copernicus
💡 Copernicus published his heliocentric theory in "De Revolutionibus" in 1543, the same year he died. The model was so controversial that it remained on the Catholic Church's list of banned books for over 200 years.
43. Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. In which fields?
✓ Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911)
💡 Curie won the Physics Nobel for her research on radioactivity and the Chemistry Nobel for discovering the elements polonium and radium. She died in 1934 from aplastic anaemia, almost certainly caused by long-term radiation exposure from her research.
44. Which scientist developed the three laws of planetary motion?
✓ Johannes Kepler
💡 Kepler formulated his three laws between 1609 and 1619, using meticulous observational data collected by Tycho Brahe. His laws showed that planets move in ellipses rather than perfect circles, fundamentally changing our understanding of the solar system.
45. Who is known as the father of modern genetics?
✓ Gregor Mendel
💡 Mendel discovered the laws of inheritance through his famous pea plant experiments in the 1860s. His work was largely ignored during his lifetime but was rediscovered in 1900 and became the foundation of modern genetics.
46. Which scientist is famous for the thought experiment involving Schrödinger's cat?
✓ Erwin Schrödinger
💡 Schrödinger devised the famous thought experiment in 1935 to illustrate a paradox in quantum superposition — a cat in a box with a radioactive trigger could be simultaneously alive and dead until observed. It was intended as a critique of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
47. Who developed the first smallpox vaccine?
✓ Edward Jenner
💡 Jenner observed in 1796 that milkmaids who contracted cowpox seemed immune to smallpox. He tested his theory by inoculating a boy with cowpox and then exposing him to smallpox — the boy didn't get ill, and the era of vaccination was born.
48. What was the name of Stephen Hawking's famous popular science book about cosmology?
✓ A Brief History of Time
💡 Published in 1988, "A Brief History of Time" remained on the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking wrote it to make cosmology accessible to general readers, reportedly cutting every equation after being told each one would halve the book's sales.
49. Which physicist discovered X-rays in 1895?
✓ Wilhelm Röntgen
💡 Röntgen discovered X-rays accidentally while experimenting with cathode ray tubes and was so uncertain of their nature that he called them "X-rays" — X for unknown. One of the first X-ray images ever taken was of his wife's hand, showing her bones and wedding ring.
50. Who co-discovered the structure of DNA with James Watson in 1953?
✓ Francis Crick
💡 Watson and Crick's double helix model was built using crucial X-ray diffraction data produced by Rosalind Franklin, whose contribution was not fully acknowledged during her lifetime. The Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins in 1962, four years after Franklin's death.
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Science trivia has the specific quality of making people feel clever when they get something right that they weren't sure they knew. That moment of not knowing you knew something is one of the better feelings a quiz question can produce, and science rounds tend to generate it more often than most.
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