Advance Australia... Scientifically! Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. For many thousands of years Australian Aboriginals have used a simple but effective piece of technology called a 'woomera'. What, exactly, is a woomera?

Answer: A spear-throwing device

A woomera is a spear-throwing device about three feet (one metre) long.
It's a remarkably efficient device which effectively 'extends' the arm of the thrower. The extra energy gained from the woomera's use has been calculated as four times that from a compound bow.

Question provided by tonye49.

2. In 1856, James Harrison patented something which would eventually become an indispensable part of modern life. What was this device which ultimately revolutionised our kitchens and our eating habits?

Answer: Refrigerator

Harrison invented the modern gas-compression refrigerator. After setting up an ice-making operation in Geelong, Victoria in 1851, he took out a patent in 1856 for a vapour compression system using ether, alcohol or ammonia. He also introduced commercial vapour-compression refrigeration to breweries and meat packing houses, and by 1861, a dozen of his systems were in operation.

While these early systems were too big and bulky for home use, the principles developed by Harrison form the basis of modern refrigerators.

Question provided by tonye49.

3. Australia was a tough place to tame. Turning Mallee scrub into agricultural land was problematic. Even after removing the above-ground wood, an extensive root system still proliferated underground making ploughing all but impossible. What ingenious Australian invention overcame this problem in 1876?

Answer: Stump-jump plough

The stump-jump plough was invented by Richard Smith and perfected by his bother Clarence in 1876 in response to the South Australian Government offering a reward for a machine that could overcome the root problem caused by Mallee scrub. The plough had hinged shares (blades) which lifted when the share hit a root. The share was then lowered when the root had been passed, maximising the ploughed area. The Smith Brothers collected 200 pounds for their invention, a fortune in 19th century Australia. To this day, the stump-jump plough remains an iconic tribute to the ingenuity of the early settlers and how they overcame adversity.

Question submitted by 1nn1 who is pleased to be living in 21st Century Australia.

4. The Victa lawn mower is one of Australia's most iconic inventions. From backyard beginnings in suburban Sydney to a multi-million dollar turnover in only a few years, the Victa Mowers company is a real success story. Where did the name 'Victa' come from?

Answer: The founder's middle name, Victor

Mervyn Victor Richardson was the quintessential rags to riches story. He dabbled in cars, planes and more before turning to lawnmowers in the mid 1950s. He built a light, single-person mower out of odds and ends, and within a few short years, he was selling more than 140,000 units per year. Victa was a leading name in the back yards of Aussie houses for the next 50 years.

Question submitted by ozzz2002, who has pushed one of these contraptions many, many times.

5. In the 1950s, Australian physicist Alan Walsh developed the 'Atomic Absorption Spectrometer'. Over the following 50 years it became a centre-piece in almost every analytical chemistry laboratory throughout the world. This instrument works by measuring the absorption of specific wavelengths of light by the element being analysed. Greatly helpful to the mining industry and tracing environmental pollution amongst many other applications, what does this instrument actually measure?

Answer: Metal concentrations

The fact that a particular chemical element will emit very specific wavelengths of light has been known since the mid 19th century. This emission depends on the excitation of that element by an external energy source (often heat). The excited state atom decays to the ground state by emitting light of very specific wavelengths corresponding to gaps in the energy levels. While working at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), Alan Walsh used this knowledge and the fact that the colour spectrum in sunlight and from individual excited elements have little black 'lines' (where the actual wavelength has been absorbed) to create an instrument to accurately and routinely measure concentrations of metallic elements (e.g. tin, lead, copper, zinc, nickel, iron, etc.) in a very wide range of samples with minimum interference from the other elements present. The technique relies on directing a spectral line specific to one element through a vaporized sample (usually created by a hot flame) and then measuring how much of this spectral line is absorbed. Only that one element will absorb that specific wavelength. CSIRO patented this instrument in 1953 and Walsh's seminal paper on the subject was published a year later. Several major instrument companies took up the manufacturing of A.A.S. instruments.

Only in the last decade has A.A.S. fallen a little by the wayside as newer techniques involving Inductively Coupled Plasma and either atomic emission or mass spectrometry become more popular due to lower detection limits and simultaneous detection of multiple elements. Nevertheless, most chemistry laboratories still routinely use A.A.S.

This question provided by MikeMaster99 who still uses an A.A.S. instrument in his undergraduate chemistry teaching!

6. The first commercial jet flights were a feature of the 1950s, but unfortunately were accompanied by a series of accidents where the planes broke up in mid air. As there were no survivors nor witnesses to these accidents, what item, invented by an Australian named David Warren, is now found routinely on commercial airliners and provides vital information if the plane crashes?

Answer: Black box flight recorder

The "Black Box" flight recorder consists of two components: the flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, both contained in a single, seemingly indestructible unit. David Warren invented this "dual function" unit in 1958 but there was little interest until the British investigating the Comet crashes realised the potential of this invention. However the term "Black Box" is a misnomer used by the media rather than the airline industry. The Australian group actually called their unit "The Red Egg" due to its size and shape. As the design matured, the now rectangular unit moved to the back of the plane and became orange coloured for high visibility.

Incidentally, the inflatable escape slides are also an Australian development, invented by Qantas employee Jack Grant in 1965.

Question submitted by 1nn1 who wonders why planes cannot be made out of the same material as the indestructible flight recorder!

7. 'RaceCam' revolutionised television coverage of sporting events, but in which sport did this device make its debut in 1979?

Answer: Motor racing

RaceCam, a camera capable of transmitting live television pictures, was first used at the 1979 Bathurst 1000 touring car race, in Peter Williamson's Toyota Celica. Over the years it was increasingly miniaturised, enabling it to be deployed in many more places. Cameras were mounted in wheel arches, giving an interesting view of tyres and suspension in action, mounted on bumper bars, drivers' helmets and various other locations.

Channel 7 pioneered the technology, which went on to be used in other sports, such as cricket, where it was renamed as Stumpcam, and snow-skiing. These days, even Formula 1 cars seem to have cameras all over the place!

Question submitted by ozzz2002.

8. The early 1980s was an important time in the professional lives of Australian scientists Barry Marshall and John Robin Warren. Through their research they made a discovery that would radically alter the way doctors treated patients with gastritis and stomach ulcers. What had traditionally been considered the result of spicy food and a stressful lifestyle, was actually caused by something else. What causes these ulcers?

Answer: Bacteria

Yes, stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium, Helicobacter Pylori (H.pylori). These helix-shaped bacteria can be found in the upper gastrointestinal tract of approx. 50% of the world's population, and approx. 85% of these people never experience any symptoms.

Barry Marshall actually drank a beaker of the H.pylori bacteria to prove his claim. After a few days he became ill with nausea and vomiting. He had an endoscopy ten days after taking the bacteria and it showed he had signs of gastritis and the H.pylori.

Barry Marshall and John Robin Warren received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work. As a result of their findings, stomach ulcer treatment now involves a course, or courses, of antibiotics.

This question was contributed by slfcpd.

9. Counterfeiting can be a major problem in financial transactions. Which technology, enabling incorporation of more advanced security features, was developed in Australia in the mid 1980s and has become commonplace in many countries?

Answer: Polymer (plastic) banknotes

Polymer banknotes were developed in a collaboration between the University of Melbourne, the CSIRO and the Reserve Bank of Australia, with the first patents granted in the early 1970s. These notes are much longer lasting, thereby lowering environmental impact and printing costs. Perhaps more importantly, they were designed to minimize forgery, a problem that had beset Australian banknotes for several decades. Traditional security features from paper notes can be retained (e.g. metal threads, latent images and intricate patterns) but new features such as transparent windows and small diffraction gratings - optically variable devices that cannot be copied - provide even greater security.

The first Australian polymer banknotes were issued in 1988 to coincide with the bicentenary of the arrival of the first fleet, and by 1996 all new notes were polymeric (a polypropylene plastic).

This question was contributed by MikeMaster99 who would love to see many more of these items in his wallet at the end of each week! Warning: security features in banknotes do not deter offspring. These notes also shrivel in a microwave - don't try it at home.

10. The Australian of the Year in 2006 was Professor Ian Frazer. He received this honour mainly due to his work with fellow researcher Jian Zhou on developing a vaccine to treat a common sexually transmitted infection. This infection has been shown to increase the risk of developing serious cancers in both men and women. Australia was the first country in the world to introduce a government funded vaccination program for this vaccine. For what does this vaccine provide immunity?

Answer: Human Papillomavirus

The HPV vaccine, 'Gardasil', was developed to combat the Human Papillomavirus. It protects against two high risk HPV types, '16' & '18', which cause 70% of cervical cancers in women and 90% of HPV related cancers in men. It also protects against two low risk HPV types, '6' & '11', that cause 90% of genital warts.

The HPV virus usually causes no symptoms and goes away by itself, but does sometime cause serious illness. Some of the cancers linked to it are cervical cancer, anal cancer, vaginal cancer, vulva cancer, penile cancer and oropharyngeal cancers.

Australia started a national program in 2007 to vaccinate girls and in 2013 extended it to include boys.

This question was contributed by slfcpd.

Source: Author MikeMaster99

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Poisonous creatures, the Great Barrier Reef, bushrangers, the outback, sports and arts - all topics that relate to Australia. But Aussies have also contributed many great scientific breakthroughs and inventions. Let's look at some of them!

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