New Scientist and Imperial researchers storm to victory in first Big Science Pub Quiz
Researchers and science journalists join forces for Imperial's Big Science Pub Quiz 2011 - News
By Laura Gallagher
Friday 11 March 2011
Some organisations might have had cause for concern if over 50 journalists turned up on the doorstep, but not so Imperial College London this week.
Science reporters from eleven national and specialist media outlets were welcomed to the College on Tuesday 8 March to take part in Imperial’s first Big Science Pub Quiz, staged by the Communications and Development Division. The event was held in the Haemo Globe Inn, a pop-up pub created especially for the occasion on Imperial's South Kensington campus.
Journalists from outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, New Scientist and Physics World joined over 60 Imperial researchers to form teams, pit their wits against rivals and make new contacts. A squad of press officers from UK research councils and other partner organisations also came to test their science know-how.
Question rounds included True or False, Science in the Movies, Science in Song and The News Round. At the helm was quiz-master Gareth Mitchell - a lecturer on Imperial's MSc in Science Communication and presenter of the Imperial College Podcast and BBC Radio 4's Digital Planet.
Professor Martin McCall, who was on the Particle Zoo team, said: "I enjoyed myself enormously. I was amazed how much more knowledgeable our New Scientist partners were than us physicists! I guess in their job they have to have a very broad perspective, but even so... I showed my age by retrieving from the deepest recesses of my memory the song-title 'Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft' - ah, those were the years."
Most hotly contested was a round worth five valuable points in which each team was invited to create a flying device using only a sheet of A3 paper. Members of each team then volunteered to try and hit a target with this contraption.
Whilst most teams chose to make a paper plane, a few took the less conventional route and screwed the paper into a ball, which proved surprisingly effective at hitting the target.
Professor McCall added: "The paper plane race was a definite high point with a guy from Aeronautical Engineering taking careful aim with his dart before screwing it up, dunking it in a glass of water and hurling it at the target!"
Mr Mitchell kept contestants on their toes with spot prize questions about bdelloid rotifers - microscopic aquatic animals that have not had sex in over 40 million years – and Imperial alumnus and Queen guitarist Brian May. Rewards included astronaut ice cream and an ice cube tray for making robot-shaped ice cubes.
There was a close finish with two teams tied for first place - Large Hardon Collider, led by Professor Wendy Barclay from the Department of Medicine, and Particle Zoo, led by Professor Joanna Haigh from the Department of Physics.
The media side of both leading teams was composed of journalists from New Scientist and two of them stepped up to answer a tie-break question. Mike Marshall and Jacob Aron, both also alumni of Imperial's MSc in Science Communication, were asked: "What is the circumference of the Large Hadron Collider in metres?"
The correct answer was 26,659m and with his guess of 23,457m coming in closest, Jacob Aron took Large Hardon Collider to victory. The winners were awarded specially engraved glass tankards.
Mr Aron, who is a technology reporter at New Scientist, said: "I had a great time at the Big Science Pub Quiz, and winning in a tense tiebreaker against my New Scientist colleagues was a brilliant end to the evening. My team of journalists and scientists had the winning combination of sci-fi movie trivia and specialised scientific knowledge that we needed to succeed. Either that, or we just got lucky."
Professor McCall added: "In the end, we wuz robbed, I have to say. Our Particle Zoo team were clearly better than everyone else put together, and coming second on a trivial tie-break - who cares what the circumference of the LHC is anyway? - was a bitter pill to swallow. Roll on next year!"
Final scores
| Place | Score | Team | Featuring |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 66.5 | Large Hardon Colliders | New Scientist, Wendy Barclay and colleagues |
| 2nd | 66.5 | Particle Zoo | New Scientist, Joanna Haigh and colleagues |
| 3rd | 65 | Meaty, You're Right | The Times, Molly Stevens and colleagues |
| 4th | 64.5 | Imperial Storm troopers | The Daily Mail, Matt Genge and colleagues |
| 5th | 64 | Currying Favour | The Guardian, Stephen Curry and colleagues |
| 6th | 55 | Professor Palin and the Fruit Flies | Science, Andrew Jaffe and colleagues |
| 7th | 54 | Euclids on the Block | Channel 4 News, ITN, Sir Keith O'Nions and colleagues |
| = 8th | 52.5 | Dirac's Drunkards | Physics World, John Tisch and colleagues |
| = 8th | 52.5 | Denialists | The BBC, Stephanie Waterman and colleagues |
| = 10th | 51 | Quiz team Aguilera | Reuters, Anja Kern and colleagues |
| = 10th | 51 | Radio Gaga | The BBC, Greg Offer and colleagues |
| = 12th | 49 | Free Drinks at the Bar | The BBC, Aldo Faisal and colleagues |
| = 12th | 49 | Periodically Pissed | Science, Tom Welton and colleagues |
| 14th | 47 | Please Release Me... Embargo | Press officers |
| 15th | 40.5 | i | The Independent, Deirdre Hollingsworth and colleagues |
| 16th | 36.5 | Eastside | Freelance Imperial alumni, Nigel Gooderham and colleagues |
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If you are an Imperial researcher or a member of the media who would like to take part in a similar event in future, please email events@imperial.ac.uk
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