Last week, we published the National Science Foundation’s science literacy quiz. Overall, us UBCers are way more science literate than the average American. So congrats, even if it is a small victory. But the results also showed some gaps in UBC’s science knowledge.
Of the 11 questions we asked, four saw 10 per cent or more of the 1,800 responders get incorrect responses. Want to know why you got them wrong? Here’s the short of it.
Q. It’s the fathers gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl.
A. It is! And a whooping 31 per cent of you didn’t know that!
Humans have 46 chromosomes, 44 of which are identical regardless of your sex. The last pair of chromosomes, called the sex chromosomes, have two forms — XX and XY. When two people do the deed, the mother — the XX individual — can only give their child an X chromosome.
The father — the XY individual — can give either an X or a Y. Individuals who are XX tend to have a vagina and XY individuals tend to have a penis.
Q. Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria.
A. No, no they don’t. But 18 per cent of you thought they did.
Bacteria and viruses are both very small and can make you sick, but that’s basically the end of the similarities between the two. Bacteria are single-celled organisms with metabolisms — they eat (bacteria style) and poop (bacteria style) — they also have sex (bacteria style). Bacteria make you sick when they start reproducing in places they aren’t supposed to in your body.
Bacteria are cells, viruses are not.Viruses, on the other hand, aren’t even living. They are a set of instructions to make more virus (DNA or RNA) with a bit of protection. Viruses make you sick because they enter your cells and use all of your cellular machinery to multiply. Your cells stop doing cell things and just make viruses. Viruses are so simple they don’t require energy and can only reproduce by stealing your cell’s tools.
Antibiotics ONLY WORK AGAINST BACTERIA. Think about it like this — garlic is great at keeping vampires away, but will only add a bit of flavour if a werewolf attacks. So next time you have a cold and the doctor says you don’t need antibiotics, they aren’t cheap skating you. They just know antibiotics wont get rid of your virus.
More info here.
Q. Electrons are smaller than atoms.
A. Yes they are, but 11 per cent of you didn’t know that!
Atoms are made up of three parts — protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons make up the heavy centre called the nucleus. They are big, relative to electrons at least. Electrons circle the nucleus in a cloud, whizzing around in defined shapes called orbitals. If the nucleus were the size of a pea, electrons would be whizzing around in an area the size of a baseball field and they would be so small you couldn’t see them.
These are electron orbitals — the areas electrons zoom around an atom in.Want to explore the size of everything?
Q. Lasers are work by focusing sound waves.
A. No, they work by focusing monochromatic light. But 16 per cent of UBC didn’t know that.
Laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Here is a great interactive explanation.
The real reason scientists invented the laser.