Last week a few colleagues and I took part in TalkScience‘s annual scientific Christmas quiz at the British Library, where twenty-five teams battled it out in six nerdy rounds, testing their knowledge of science in the news, animal sounds, the chemistry of sex, ancient cures and more. There were questions about Lego scientists, Matt Taylor’s shirt, cholera, Florence Nightingale, and much more.
There was also a bonus round, which tested how well you knew several scientific locations, and asked you to match them up with the correct latitude and longitude. We did quite well on this one, and it was my favourite question of them all. With permission of the organisers, and with some new images, here is a reproduction of the “Santa’s scientific sleigh ride” question. (And for a hint, remember that the original quiz was held in London, at the British Library.)
Can you help Santa deliver all his presents? Match up the famous scientific locations to their GPS coordinates and fill in the name of the location.
| A. Darwin visited in HMS Beagle | B. Powerful particle accelerator |
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| C. Life sciences research institute | D. Launch site for Apollo missions |
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| E. Archimedes’ “Eureka” moment happened here | F. Where Dolly the sheep was cloned |
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| G. Site of the pitch drop experiment | H. And back home! |
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| GPS coordinates | Image letter | Location |
| 1. 52°N: 0°W | ||
| 2. 46°N: 6°E | ||
| 3. 37°N: 15°E | ||
| 4. 27°S: 153°E | ||
| 5. 28°N: 80°W | ||
| 6 1°S: 89°W | ||
| 7. 56°N: 3°W | ||
| 8. 90°N |
You have to be quite specific in your answers – try to get to institute level!
Our team had almost everything correct in this question, which unfortunately didn’t count toward our total score.
The Finch and Pea 
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