The Week’s Christmas quiz: looking back on 2022

How much can you remember from the past 12 months?

Nasa’s Artemis 1 on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Nasa’s new Moon mission blasted off in November
(Image credit: Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)

Obituaries

1. Which is the only bird that can fly both upside down and backwards?

2. Which New Zealand-born physicist is credited with splitting the atom?

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3. By what name – a nod to the Surrey town where it was supposedly discovered – is hydrated magnesium sulphate better known?

4. What is the igneous rock seen in hexagonal columns at the Giant’s Causeway, in Northern Ireland, and Fingal’s Cave, in the Inner Hebrides?

5. Which creature sparks fear in an ophidiophobe?

6. Which three US states have just four letters in their name? And list the ten US states whose names are two words.

7. In which European city would you find Manneken Pis?

8. By what name is serge de Nîmes more commonly known?

9. Which US state has the longest coastline, at 6,640 miles?

10. Which subatomic particles are found in the nucleus of an atom?

11. By what name is the River Isis known, when it reaches Dorchester?

A tile reading "how did you do, scroll down for the answers" illustrated with robins and a festive garland

Answers

1. Hummingbird

2. Sir Ernest Rutherford

3. Epsom salts

4. Basalt

5. Snakes

6. Iowa, Ohio, Utah; New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia

7. Brussels

8. Denim

9. Alaska

10. Protons and neutrons

11. River Thames

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