Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
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60 free science and nature trivia questions with answers. Think you know your elements from your enzymes? From the speed of light to the deepest ocean trench, this 60-question science and nature quiz covers the full spectrum — physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, earth science, ecology, and the scientists who shaped our understanding of the world. Easy enough to start, hard enough to humble.
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Q 01What planet is known as the Red Planet?
Mars
Mars; the colour comes from dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides spread across its plains.
Q 02What gas do plants absorb from the atmosphere during photosynthesis?
Carbon dioxide
Plants take in carbon dioxide through leaf stomata; light energy drives the assembly of sugars from carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen released as the by-product.
Q 03What is the chemical formula for water?
H2O
Water's formula is H2O: two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom; adding a second oxygen gives hydrogen peroxide, H2O2.
Q 04How many bones are in the adult human body?
206
An adult has 206 bones; a newborn has around 270, and the count falls as bones such as those of the skull and sacrum fuse.
Q 05What force keeps us grounded on Earth?
Gravity
Gravity, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, is the one that draws all material objects toward each other.
Q 06What is the largest planet in our solar system?
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, with a mass more than twice that of all other planets combined. Its diameter is about 139,820 km.
Q 07What is the powerhouse of the cell?
Mitochondria
Mitochondria earned the nickname in a 1957 Scientific American article by Philip Siekevitz; their folded inner membrane runs aerobic respiration to make ATP.
Q 08What type of animal is a dolphin?
Mammal
Like other aquatic mammals they carry a thick layer of blubber for warmth, and they surface to breathe air.
Q 09What is the boiling point of water at sea level in degrees Celsius?
100°C
Water boils at 100°C (212°F) at sea level. The boiling point decreases at higher altitudes because of lower atmospheric pressure.
Q 10Which scientist developed the theory of general relativity?
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein worked out general relativity between 1907 and 1915, recasting gravity as the curvature of spacetime by mass and energy.
Q 11What is the hardest natural substance on Earth?
Diamond
Diamond, a lattice of carbon atoms each bonded to four neighbours, rates 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, the top of the scale; quartz rates 7.
Q 12What does DNA stand for?
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid, named for the deoxyribose sugar in its backbone; two polynucleotide chains coil around each other in the familiar double helix.
Q 13Which element has the atomic number 1?
Hydrogen
Hydrogen has atomic number 1, meaning it has one proton in its nucleus. It is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe.
Q 21What is the deepest point in the ocean?
Mariana Trench
The Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific; the Challenger Deep at its southern end lies roughly 10,935 metres below sea level.
Q 22In which field did Marie Curie win her first Nobel Prize?
Physics
Marie Curie won her first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 (shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) for their research on radioactivity. She later won a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
Q 23What type of rock is formed from cooled lava or magma?
Igneous
Igneous, from magma cooling underground or lava on the surface; granite and basalt are examples.
Q 14What is the tallest species of tree in the world?
Coast redwood
Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest species; the record individual, Hyperion in California's Redwood National Park, stands about 116 metres.
Q 15What layer of Earth's atmosphere do we live in?
Troposphere
The troposphere, the lowest layer, reaches roughly 8 to 15 km up and holds about three-quarters of the atmosphere's mass and nearly all its water vapour, so weather happens inside it.
Q 16What is the speed of light in a vacuum, approximately?
300,000 km/s
Light travels 299,792,458 metres per second, about 300,000 km/s; the figure is exact by definition because the metre is defined as the distance light covers in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
Q 17Which organ in the human body produces insulin?
The pancreas
The pancreas makes insulin in the beta cells of its islets of Langerhans; Banting and Best isolated the hormone in 1921.
Q 18What is the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere?
Nitrogen
Nitrogen makes up about 78% of dry air; oxygen accounts for about 21% and argon just under 1%, with everything else a trace.
Q 19Which scientist is known as the father of evolution?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, a year after his and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on natural selection were read jointly at the Linnean Society.
Q 20What scale is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes?
Richter scale
The Richter scale, devised by Charles Richter in 1935, was the first scale for earthquake magnitude; seismologists later adopted the moment magnitude scale for large quakes.
Q 24What phenomenon causes the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)?
Charged solar particles hitting gas
Charged solar particles hitting gas, colliding with atoms in the upper atmosphere; displays follow disturbances driven by fast solar wind from coronal holes and mass ejections.
Q 25How many chromosomes do humans normally have?
46
46, in 23 pairs; the true count was only established in 1956, by the cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio, after textbooks had repeated a wrong figure for decades.
Q 26What is the chemical symbol for gold?
Au
Gold's symbol Au comes from the Latin aurum; silver's Ag likewise comes from the Latin argentum.
Q 27Which planet in our solar system has the most moons?
Saturn
Saturn leads with 274 confirmed moons after a March 2025 announcement added 128 at once; runner-up Jupiter had fewer than 100 recognised moons at that time.
Q 28What is the process by which a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly called?
Metamorphosis
Complete metamorphosis takes a butterfly through egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult; falling juvenile hormone at the final moult triggers the change.
Q 29What is Newton's First Law of Motion also known as?
Law of inertia
Newton's first law is the law of inertia: a body stays at rest or moves in a straight line at constant speed unless a net force acts on it.
Q 30Which blood type is known as the universal donor?
O negative
O negative; supplies are scarce enough that guidelines reserve it for O-negative patients, women who may be pregnant, and emergencies.