The word “gas” comes from the Greek word “chaos,” meaning disorder. Around 1630, Flemish scientist Jan Baptista van Helmont first referred to gas in a scientific context to describe a vaporous state of matter that wasn’t solid and wasn’t liquid but existed nonetheless. The first “gas” he described was the smoke produced by burning wood.

Just about every square mile of land on Earth has been claimed by one nation or another, but not Marie Byrd Land. Its 620,000 square miles of Western Antarctica belong to no one and everyone — the largest unclaimed space on Earth. In the interest of world peace and scientific progress, the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 decreed that Antarctica would remain a demilitarized space reserved for cooperative scientific research.

When you give a thumbs-up sign, does the tip of your thumb naturally bend backward? The fancy name for that type of double-jointedness is distal hyperextensibility of the thumb, but most people know it as hitchhiker’s thumb. It’s a recessive trait you inherit from your parents, and the amount of curvature can range from slightly tilted to a full 90-degree bend.

1. What animated cat appeared in two Oscar-winning films with Tweety the canary?

A) Felix

B) Garfield

C) Sylvester

D) Top Cat

2. The word “hysteria” comes from the ancient Greek for what body part?

A) Arm

B) Brain

C) Mouth

D) Uterus

3. Which of these cities lies closest to Antarctica?

A) Cape Town, South Africa

B) Sydney, Australia

C) Nuuk, Greenland

D) Ushuaia, Argentina

4. Nelson Mandela spent 18 years incarcerated as a political prisoner at what location, now a UNESCO World Heritage site?

A) Alcatraz Island

B) Buru Island

C) Devil’s Island

D) Robben Island

5. Which chemical element contributes to making human blood red?

A) Aluminum

B) Copper

C) Iron

D) Selenium

6. Who wrote the tale “Thumbelina”?

A) Hans Christian Andersen

B) Carlo Collodi

C) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

D) Beatrix Potter

ANSWERS

1) Tweety and Sylvester appeared together in the Oscar-winning animated short films “Tweetie Pie” and “Birds Anonymous.”

2) Hysteria comes from the ancient Greek word “hystera,” meaning uterus.

3) Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina, is about 620 miles from the Antarctic Peninsula.

4) Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 prison years on Robben Island.

5) Iron contributes to the red color of human blood.

6) Hans Christian Andersen wrote the tale of “Thumbelina.”