What Does the Moon Smell Like?: 151 Astounding Science Quizzes (8 page)

93

The Top 10 Most Contaminated

Things in Your Office

Where did they find the most germs?

A

a) elevator button

b) phone receivers

c) photocopier start button

GERMyNA

d) toilet seats

TION:

CORRECT ANSWER:

ON

b) phone receivers

THE

JOB

Dr. Gerba says that there are more bacteria and viruses in office cubicles than in public restrooms.

The average phone receiver had 500 times as many bacteria as the average toilet seat, which was close to the bottom of the list. The least contaminated items were doorknobs and light switches, probably because they weren’t touched nearly as often as phones or computers.

The 10 Most Contaminated Things

in the Average Office

1. phone

2. desktop

3. water fountain handle

4. microwave door handle

5. computer keyboard and mouse

6. inside the desks of female workers

7. palm pilots

8. photocopier buttons

9. fax machine buttons

10. sink in the coffee prep area

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Hand Island

People do more than just work at their desks; they Q

live at them too. For eight or more hours a day, they eat meals and snacks, pay bills, talk on the phone, answer personal email, and so on. While they’re GERMyNA

doing all of the above, and maybe even getting some work done, most people have a spot on the desk

TION:

where they typically park their hand. The Germinator knew about the handy hotspot, and tested it.

ON

THE

How many germs did that area contain on average?

JOB

About . . .

a) as many as a toilet

b) 4 times as many as a toilet

c) 100 times as many as a toilet

d) 400 times as many as a toilet

95

Hand Island

How many germs did that area contain on average?

A

About . . .

a) as many as a toilet

b) 4 times as many as a toilet

GERMyNA

c) 100 times as many as a toilet

d) 400 times as many as a toilet

TION:

ON

CORRECT ANSWER:

THE

d) 400 times as many as a toilet

JOB

You might as well call the area “Hand Island,”

because it could be home to 10 million or so bacteria.

Say you used the toilet at work, and didn’t wash your hands. Would you pick your nose, rub your eyes, or lick your fingers? Maybe not. Guess what? Hand

Island is probably more contaminated than the office toilet. If the idea of sharing your desk with millions of germs doesn’t appeal to you, The Germinator recommends annihilating them with a disinfectant wipe once a day. Hand Island’s population will be cut by about 99.9%.

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BY THE BILLION

Let the Counting Begin!

Imagine it: you’re on a TV game show, and the

Q

smarmy host has just told you that you’ve won a billion dollars. Before you can shut your gaping mouth he continues, “Buuut . . . there IS . . . a catch. You . . .

can only keep . . . as much money . . . as you . . . can count!” You’re ready for the challenge! Let the counting begin! “Annnd . . .” the obnoxious host continues, with even more dramatic pauses, “it’s . . . all . . . in . . .

one . . . dollar . . . bills!” The studio audience goes wild when you give the cameras a huge grin and two thumbs-up. You’re ready to count your way to a billion dollars! It takes one second to count each dollar.

About long does it take you to count a billion dollars?

a) 32 hours

b) 32 days

c) 32 months

d) 32 years

97

Let the Counting Begin!

About long does it take you to count a billion dollars?

A

a) 32 hours

b) 32 days

c) 32 months

BY

THE

d) 32 years

BILLION

CORRECT ANSWER:

d) 32 years

Sadly, the game show would be cancelled long before you could count your billion. If you do the math (not counting leap years), it actually works out to 31 years, 259 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 40 seconds . . .

almost 32 years without a bathroom break or a wink of sleep! And that’s counting an American billion (a thousand million). You’d have to live almost 3,200

years to count a British billion (a million million)!

These days, a billion usually refers to the American billion, even in Britain.

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Birdy Body Count

There are billions and billions of birds on the planet.

Q

They’re divided into just under 10,000 species of which 70% are declining in numbers, and of those, 10% are winging toward extinction. But one species is BY

experiencing a spectacular population boom, and may THE

turn out to be the most successful bird species ever.

BILLION

There are more of them today than any other kind of avian. So why are they booming while other bird species are going bust? Because we keep producing them!

How many chickens are there on the planet?

a) as many as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy b) four times as many as the human population

c) more than all the rest of the birds in the world combined

d) one gigabyte, if each chicken is one byte

99

Birdy Body Count

How many chickens are there on the planet?

A

a) as many as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy b) four times as many as the human population

c) more than all the rest of the birds in the world BY

THE

combined

d) one gigabyte, if each chicken is one byte

BILLION

CORRECT ANSWER:

b) four times as many as the human population

There were more than 24 billion chickens clucking on the planet in 2007. That’s about four chickens for every man, woman, and child. Unless a bird flu or other disease has decimated their numbers, there are probably even more of them now. By 2100, a quarter of all bird species could be extinct. What are the odds that chickens will be among them? Even if they did get into trouble, is there any doubt that heroic efforts would be made to save the chickens, and bring their population back up into the billions as quickly as possible? I’d count on that.

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It’s What’s Inside that Counts

Ever heard the saying, “It’s what’s inside that counts”?

Q

When it comes to your body, it couldn’t be more true.

We’re totally unaware of the life and times of the trillions of cells that make up our bodies, even though BY

our lives depend on their proper functioning. A THE

healthy body stays in balance by replacing cells at the BILLION

same rate as they’re lost. Cells are constantly dying, and being born. Take red blood cells: they develop in your bone marrow, and pop out into your bloodstream every day. How many of them in a day? Excellent question!

How many red blood cells does your body make in 24 hours?

a) 1 billion

b) 2 billion

c) 20 billion

d) 200 billion

101

It’s What’s Inside that Counts

How many red blood cells does your body make in A

24 hours?

a) 1 billion

b) 2 billion

BY

THE

c) 20 billion

d) 200 billion

BILLION

CORRECT ANSWER:

d) 200 billion

In fact, every day, your body makes
more
than 200 billion red blood cells to replace the same number of worn-out cells. Each and every second, about two million red blood cells are born. If you’ve spent a minute reading this far, in that 60 seconds, 120 million new red cells have popped out of your bone marrow and joined your bloodstream. If you read for another 10 minutes, you’ll have 1.2 billion more fresh, young, red cells in action. The ones that they’ve replaced have been removed from circulation, and are being broken down right now. The iron inside them is being recycled and reused to make — what else? —

more red blood cells. Bloody amazing!

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FAT WORDS

F

These words are all FAT, meaning phat, cool, bad, Q

awesome, brilliant, or neat. They have to do with things on previous pages, or pages yet to come, and they all start with f.

What do you think they mean?

Ferrule

a) dominant male ferret with a large territory

b) metal band that holds the eraser to the end of a pencil

c) small funnel used by perfume chemists

d) tool for testing the iron content of ore

Fomite

a) gel for sopping up oil spills

b) inanimate object contaminated with germs

c) plastic laminate used in kitchens and bathrooms d) styrofoam packing pellets

Furcula

a) bat’s roost

b) Dracula’s cat

c) forked bone found in birds and therapod dinosaurs d) root of animal hair follicles

103

F

Ferrule

CORRECT ANSWER:

A

b) metal band that holds the eraser to the end of a FA

pencil

TWORDS

One of the final parts of pencil-making is attaching the ferrule and the eraser to the end of the pencil.

The word refers not just to the metal band on the end of a pencil, but to other metal rings, caps, or sleeves, as well.

Fomite

CORRECT ANSWER:

b) inanimate object contaminated with germs

Any inanimate object or thing that holds or absorbs germs or parasites and transfers them from one

person to the next is called a fomite. For example, a doorknob covered in flu virus is a fomite, as is a comb infested with head lice.

Furcula

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) forked bone found in birds and therapod dinosaurs You’ve probably seen a chicken’s furcula. Maybe you’ve even wished on one. Furcula means “little fork” in Latin, and it’s a wishbone by any other name.

It strengthens birds’ chest muscles for flying.

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Alphabet ABCs

These terms are FAT too, and they also have some-Q

thing to do with things on previous pages, or pages yet to come. How well do you know your ABCs?

FAT

What do you think they mean?

WORDS

Astronomical Unit

a) currency for space tourists

b) distance from the Earth to the sun

c) measure of a star’s mass

d) team of four astronomers

Borborygmus

a) short-sightedness

b) sounds your belly makes when you’re hungry

c) three-dimensional geometric shape

d) vortex of flushing toilet water

Chalaza

a) cheese-filled fried flatbread

b) egg yolk’s anchor

c) hammock chair

d) hollow gourd used as a percussion instrument 105

Alphabet ABCs

Astronomical Unit

A

CORRECT ANSWER:

b) distance from the Earth to the sun

FAT

If you want to be precise, the generally accepted WORDS

value of an astronomical unit, or AU, is

149,597,870,691 kilometres, plus or minus 30 metres.

Or you could just think of it as being about 150 million kilometres, or 93 million miles — the distance from the Earth to the sun.

Borborygmus

CORRECT ANSWER:

b) sounds your belly makes when you’re hungry

It’s that gurgling, burbling, rumbling sound your belly makes when you’re hungry. The sound comes from

the movement of gases and liquids making their way through the gut. The word comes from the ancient Greeks, who were trying to imitate gut sounds with the word.

Chalaza

CORRECT ANSWER:

b) egg yolk’s anchor

The plural of chalaza is chalazae, and they’re the structural fibres that hold an egg yolk in place. If you’ve ever cracked open a raw egg and seen a thick, white, ropelike strand, you’ve seen the chalazae. If you want to know how fresh an egg is, check out the chalazae: the thicker the strand, the fresher the egg.

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T

These words are also FAT, and they all start with t.

Q

What do you think they mean?

FAT

Tittle

WORDS

a) dot over the letter i

b) mammary gland of whales

c) snicker

d) unit of fluid measurement

Tribology

a) oral record of tribal history

b) psychology of same culture bonding

c) science of interacting surfaces in relative motion d) study of the history of newspapers

Trophallaxis

a) angle of the earth’s axis

b) food regurgitation by one animal for another c) insect mating act

d) laxative

107

T

Tittle

A

CORRECT ANSWER:

a) dot over the letter i

FAT

In English, the letter i is always dotted with a tittle, WORDS

but the dot over the i is not the only tittle. The marks made over a letter, such as accents, circumflexes, umlauts, or under a letter, such as the cedilla used under the letter ç, are also tittles.

Tribology

CORRECT ANSWER:

c) science of interacting surfaces in relative motion Tribology is the study of friction, wear, lubrication, and design of bearings. A bearing is the part of a machine that bears friction, especially between the rotating shaft and its housing.