Answers to Quiz - 20

1) Unlike American Presidents, only one British Prime Minister was assassinated. Who was this unfortunate person?

Spencer Perceval

2) What did the Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discover in 1995?

The First Exoplanet, a planet outside our solar system

3) Name the first person to have his genome fully sequenced recently.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA

4) What is Glamping?

Glamorous Camping, living outdoors in luxurious tents

5) The winner of which prestigious literary award is presented along with the cash prize a bronze statuette called Bessie?

The Orange Prize

6) Who created the comic strip character Modesty Blaise?

Peter O'Donnell

7) From which African language does Chikungunya, the mosquito borne disease, derives its name?

Makonde word meaning "that which bends up" in reference to the stooped posture developed as a result of the arthritic symptoms of the disease

8) Name the giant sphere surrounding the solar system, from which all comets are believed to originate.

The Oort Cloud, after the Dutch astronomer who in 1950 postulated its existence

9) Name the anti-consumerism movement, that originated at a San Francisco dinner party in December 2005, whose members take a vow not to buy anything new except, food, medicine and underwear.

The Compact

10) The Smurfs (originally Les Schtroumpfs in French) are a fictional group of small sky blue creatures who live somewhere in the forests of medieval Europe, created by the Belgian cartoonist who used the pseudonym Peyo. What was his real name?

Pierre Culliford