CrowdScience The CrowdScience quiz of the year
Dec 26, 2025
Join a hilarious end-of-year quiz where presenters tackle quirky scientific questions! Discover why animals swallow stones and how cats defy physics by landing on their feet. Dive into stellar brightness with insights about Vega and Sirius, and uncover cultural takes on time from 'island time' to 'Indian stretchable time.' Plus, learn the fascinating reasons behind infantile amnesia and hear entertaining anecdotes involving ladybirds and a runaway cow tail. Who will take the crown in this wacky showdown?
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Ostrich Gizzard Surprise
- Oliver Wing showed a full set of bird gastroliths including one ostrich's gizzard holding about a kilo of stones.
- He said some ostriches can carry up to three kilos of stones in their gizzard, and once even had a pocket knife inside.
How Cats Survive High Falls
- Cats can reorient mid-air using body bending without external torque, explaining the 'land on feet' reflex.
- Injury rates from falls rise to about the eighth floor then drop, likely because cats reach terminal velocity and relax.
Stellar Brightness Uses Odd Magnitudes
- Astronomers measure stellar brightness using magnitudes, a backwards scale where brighter stars have smaller or negative numbers.
- Vega is the standard reference star at magnitude zero and Sirius is the brightest with about −1.4 magnitude.