The Christmas quiz: looking back on 2020

Test your knowledge on the year’s news and on popular quiz topics

Former Nasa astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan
Former Nasa astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
  1. What food flavouring is derived from the crocus plant?
  2. Which two elements alloy to form brass?
  3. What chemical element was formerly known as Brimstone?
  4. What does Covid-19 stand for?
  5. Which animal’s scientific name means: “A camel marked like a leopard who walks swiftly”.
  6. David Attenborough is best known as a naturalist, but early in his career, he also changed the game of tennis. How?
  7. Bruxism is the medical term for what unconsious habit?
  8. In the 18th century, which scientist pioneered the concept of vaccination? And why was it named as such?
  9. Which fourth century Greek mathematician is referred to as the “founder”, or father, of geometry?
  10. If you met a taikonaut in space, where would he or she have come from?
  11. And for a festive finale, by what name are many of the obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales better known?

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