1. The document describes the rules for Chemathon, a science quiz being conducted by The Chemistry Society of St. Stephen's College. 2. It states there will be 30 questions with 60 seconds for each team to answer before the question moves to the next team. Teams must keep their cameras on while answering. 3. The order of answering will be reversed after the 15th question. Points will be awarded for correct answers, with some questions worth more points. The quiz master's decision on any disputes is final.

1. CHEMATHON- The Science Quiz
By The Chemistry Society, St. Stephen’s College

2. 1. There is a total of 30 questions.
2. 60 seconds pause is dedicated for every team to answer, after which the question will
be bounced to the next team. Teams need to keep their cameras on while answering.
3. Similarly first 60 seconds, once the question is completely read by the QM are given
to answer on pounce (WhatsApp pm the answer to the QM.)
4. The order of answering will be reversed after mid-way, i.e., after 15th question.
5. +20/-10 on Pounce, and +10/0 on Bounce. For star marked (*) questions, +40/-20 on
Pounce and +20/0 on Bounce.
6. In case of any dispute w.r.t. any question, QM’s decision is final.
7. Every team is expected to maintain decorum during the quiz. Misbehaviour may lead
to disqualification.
8. Audience is expected to keep their mics muted and cameras off.
Rules and Regulations

3. Safety Slide

4. Question 1
X is known as a robust material having extremely high hardness (about 9.5 - 9.75 on Mohs
hardness scale), high cross section for absorption of neutrons, stability to ionizing radiation
and most chemicals. Its Vickers hardness (38 GPa), Elastic Modulus (460 GPa) and fracture
toughness (3.5 MPa·m1/2) in comparison to the corresponding values for Diamond (1150
GPa, and 5.3 MPa·m1/2). X is a major component of the armour of DC's Batman by Bob
Kane.
Name X.

5. Safety Slide

6. Answer 1
Boron Carbide (B4C).

7. Question 2
Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste X is a fictional character created in 1978 by Kenneth Woolner of
the University of Waterloo. Woolner perpetrated the April Fool’s Day hoax in the April 1978
issue of “CHEM 13 News”, a newsletter concerned with Chemistry for school teachers.
According to the hoax:
Claude X was born on 12th February, 1716, the son of a manufacturer of wine bottles.
During X’s extremely distinguished fictional scientific career, he purportedly proposed a
unit of volume measurement that was incorporated into the International System of Units
after his death in 1778.
The hoax was mistakenly printed as fact in the IUPAC journal of Chemistry International, and
subsequently retracted.
Give X.

8. Safety Slide

9. Answer 2
Litre.

10. Question 3
___________ has a molecular formula of C5H12O5. It was discovered in 1890 and is found in
low concentrations in fruits and vegetables and it is suitable for diabetes. It is industrially
prepared from Xylan from hardwood. It helps prevent tooth decay as unlike sugar it cannot
be used as an energy source for bacteria. It also acts as a natural cleanser and increases
salivary pH.
FITB.

11. Safety Slide

12. Answer 3
Xylitol Gum.

13. Question 4
In 2018, MIT scientists led by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero and Yuan Cao discovered that when two
sheets of graphene are stacked together at a slightly offset “magic” angle, the new “twisted”
graphene structure can become either an insulator, completely blocking electricity from
flowing through the material, or paradoxically, a superconductor, able to let electrons fly
through without resistance. It was a monumental discovery that helped launch a new field
known as _________, the study of electronic behavior in twisted graphene and other
materials.
FITB.

14. Safety Slide

15. Answer 4
Twistronics.

16. Question 5
Amatoxin is the collective name of a subgroup of at least nine related toxic
compounds found in three genera of poisonous mushrooms. X is one of the most
popular sources of this toxic compound. X is named after an entity sent out by
Yahweh on several occasions to kill the enemies of the Hebrews in the Bible.
ID X.

17. Safety Slide

18. Answer 5
Destroying Angel.

19. Question 6*
Renowned British intellectual Aldous Huxley was one of the most important figures in the early
history of ___. He was a figure of high repute in the world of letters and had become internationally
famous through his novels Crome Yellow, Antic Hay and his dystopian novel Brave New World.
While re-synthesizing _____________________, he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug
through his fingertips and discovered its powerful effects. He described what he felt as being:
... affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down
and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely
stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be
unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary
shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After about two hours this condition faded
away.
FITB.

20. Safety Slide

21. Answer 6*
LSD or Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.

22. Question 7
Packing peanuts are useful for protecting goods, but essentially useless once they have
performed this task, and only a small percentage of them are recycled. Chemists have come
up with a secondary use for them, carbonising them then grinding them to a powder to
produce carbon microsheets which can be used as __________. The microsheets are thinner
than graphite thereby making them better suited for the task.
FITB.

23. Safety Slide

24. Answer 7
Lithium Battery Anodes.

25. Question 8
In 1992 when Neils Bohr won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his services in the investigation
of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them, he was given a house
by _________ brewery. The house was located next to the brewery and it had a direct pipeline
to the brewery so that Bohr had free beer on tap whenever he wanted.
Name the brewery/ FITB.

26. Safety Slide

27. Answer 8
Carlsberg.

28. Question 9*
X form in many leaves' cuticles—coatings that limit water evaporation, mediate gas exchange, and
protect the plant from pathogens. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science,
finds that along with the cuticles inherently slippery surface, X also helps discourage insects. This
phenomenon most likely becomes more pronounced as the leaf matures and its cuticle builds up,
eventually expanding and buckling.
“Plants are really good at surviving,” says Dana MacGregor, a molecular botanist at Rothamsted
Research in England, who was not involved in the new study. “There are excellent ways by which
they can change their structure, their chemistry or their physiology to hinder herbivores from eating
their leaves. This is another example of plants changing their shape to make sure they survive.”
In context of which phenomenon in plants is Dana MacGregor saying this or
Find X .

29. Safety Slide

30. Answer 9*
Formation of Wrinkles or X is Wrinkles.

31. Question 10
X coined the term _________ to refer to the practice of varying the concentration of
substances normally present in the body to prevent and treat disease. His ideas formed the
basis of a type of medicine, which is not generally practiced by conventional medical
professionals and has been strongly criticized. X is one of four individuals to have won more
than one Nobel Prize.
FITB and Identify X.

32. Safety Slide

33. Answer 10
Orthomolecular, and X is Linus Pauling.

34. Question 11
Granules of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) with a colouring agent are melted at 230°C
then injected into moulds at extremely high pressures. After about 7 seconds, the newly
formed X piece fall into a conveyer.
X can take up to 950 pounds of force without blinking. It simply refuses to transmit any of
your applied force, instead giving it right back to your delicate nerve endings underfoot.
ID X.

35. Safety Slide

36. Answer 11
Lego Models.

37. Question 12*
“It’s the most exciting signal that we’ve found in the Breakthrough Listen project, because we
haven’t had a signal jump through this many of our filters before”, says Sofia Sheikh from
Penn State University, who helmed the subsequent analysis of the signal for Breakthrough
Listen and is the lead author on an upcoming paper detailing that work, which will be
published in early 2021. Soon, the team began calling the signal by a more formal name:
BLC1, for “Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1.” “We don’t know of any natural way to compress
electromagnetic energy into a single bin in frequency” such as this one, Siemion says.
Perhaps, he says, some as-yet-unknown exotic quirk of plasma physics could be a natural
explanation for the tantalizingly concentrated radio waves. But “for the moment, the only
source that we know of is technological.”
What is so special about this signal ?

38. Safety Slide

39. Answer 12*
The signal may be a transmission from some form of advanced extraterrestrial
intelligence (ETI)—a so-called “technosignature.”

40. Time for a Factoid !
Saturn has a hexagonal storm
at its North Pole, with a
hurricane at the centre.

41. Question 13
Identify the physicist in the Google doodle. And tell which other major physicist from
the same field trained her/him?

42. Safety Slide

43. Answer 13
Otto Lumer, and the Google Doodle is depicting Hedwig Kohn.

44. Question 14
Identify the chemist in the Google doodle. And, hence, name the epilepsy drug which
developed because of his/her contributions.

45. Safety Slide

46. Answer 14
Ayush 56, and the Chemist is Asima Chatterjee.

47. Question 15*
Identify the Scientist and tell what's so interesting about his name?

48. Safety Slide

49. Answer 15*
The scientist is Julius Lothar Meyer. He never used his First name and was
referred to as Lothar Meyer throughout his life.

50. Question 16
Identify the research base in this Google doodle. Where is this research base located ?

51. Safety Slide

52. Answer 16
The Vernadsky Research Base. It is located in the tiny island of Galindez in the
Antarctic Circle.

53. Question 17
Identify the chemist from the Google doodle. And tell which other prominent chemist
shared a Nobel prize with him?

54. Safety Slide

55. Answer 17
Vladimir Prelog is the other Scientist. And John Cornforth is being depicted in the
Google Doodle.

56. Question 18
Identify the Scientist (from the Google Doodle), and give the reason behind the doodle
(points only for the reason).

57. Safety Slide

58. Answer 18
Mary G. Ross, the first American Indian female engineer, whose major
contributions to the aerospace industry include the development of concepts for
interplanetary space travel, manned and unmanned earth-orbiting flights, and
orbiting satellites.

59. Question 19
Identify the scientist in this Google doodle. And tell, how and which prominent social
issues did his research work impacted?

60. Safety Slide

61. Answer 19
Juliano Moreira, throughout his early 20th-century career revolutionized the
treatment of people with mental illnesses in Brazil and fought tirelessly to combat
scientific racism and the false linkage of mental illness to skin color.

62. Question 20*
With which scientist is this Google Doodle related? And tell what breakthrough by the
scientist is being depicted here?

63. Safety Slide

64. Answer 20*
It's Inge Lehmann and she deduced that there must be two layers: an inner and
outer core. She saw the unseeable: that there must be a ball of solid metal (made
up of a nickel-iron alloy), buried beneath a molten outer core and mantle.

65. Time for a Factoid !
A smartphone contains around
75 chemical elements,
whereas the human body uses
only about 30

66. Question 21
Connect the given set of
molecules and give the funda.

67. Safety Slide

68. Answer 21
Serotonin, GABA, Prozac and Xanax.
Drugs commonly used to treat stress and anxiety.

69. Question 22
Connect the given set of
images and identify the
scientist associated with them.

70. Safety Slide

71. Answer 22
Richard Feynman.
Feynman Diagram for interaction of electron and positron to form Photon and then
quark and antiquark, Lambda phi fraternity's logo, Far Rockaway High School,
Bongos.

72. Question 23*
Connect the given set of
scientists and give the funda.

73. Safety Slide

74. Answer 23*
Fluorine Martyrs.
Sir Humphry Davy, Henri Moissan, Jerome Nickels, and Paulin Louyet (Chemists).

75. Question 24
Connect the given set of
images and identify the
scientist associated with them.

76. Safety Slide

77. Answer 24
Sergei Nikolaievich Winogradsky.
Chemoautotrophs, French Academy of Sciences, Clostridium, H2S.

78. Question 25
Connect the given set of
images and give the element
associated with them.

79. Safety Slide

80. Answer 25
Moscovium (Mc) (115).
A view of the famous Red Square in Moscow. The region around the city was
honored by the discoverers as "the ancient Russian land that is the home of the
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research" and became the namesake of moscovium,
Logo of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscovium also known as EKA
Bismuth.

81. Question 26
Connect the given set of
images and identify the
event/program.

82. Safety Slide

83. Answer 26
Landing of Perseverance (Mars Rover 2021).

84. Question 27
Connect the given set of
images/movies/series and give
the scientific concept common
in them (something specific!)

85. Safety Slide

86. Answer 27
Bootstrap Paradox.

87. Question 28*
Connect the given set of
images and identify the science
fiction book associated with it.

88. Safety Slide

89. Answer 28*
The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu

90. Question 29
Connect the given pictures of
nebulae and deduce the
similarity among them

91. Safety Slide

92. Answer 29
Nebulae named after insects
Butterfly nebula, Red Spider nebula, Tarantula nebula and Bug nebula

93. Question 30*
Connect the given set of
images and tell the
hypothetical scientific concept
illustrated.

94. Safety Slide

95. Answer 30
Superluminal Travel (FTL-Faster than light travel)
Tachyon, Infinite improbability drive (The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy) and Warp
Drive (Star Trek).

96. Check and Tally your scores!

97. Thank you!