The CrowdScience quiz of the year

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: This special CrowdScience episode turns the year's science stories into a playful quiz among the presenting team, revisiting episodes on gastroliths in birds, cats and angular momentum, stellar brightness, cultural concepts of time, and infantile amnesia. The quiz format highlights memorable science facts while emphasizing how much research remains surprising, unresolved, and entertaining.

Main Topics: CrowdScience Quiz of the Year format (Priority: 5/5): The episode is framed as an end-of-year quiz hosted by Anand Jagatia, with presenters taking turns as quizmasters and competing on questions drawn from past episodes. Bird gastroliths and swallowed stones (Priority: 5/5): A revisit to the episode about why animals swallow rocks, focusing on bird gizzards, unusual objects found inside them, and the amount of stones ostriches can carry. Cats, physics, and angular momentum (Priority: 5/5): The show revisits research into how cats land on their feet, why this perplexed physicists, and the mystery of injury patterns at different fall heights. Astronomy and star brightness (Priority: 4/5): A segment about measuring stellar brightness using magnitudes, Vega as a standard star, and Sirius as the brightest star in the northern sky. Culture, language, and timekeeping (Priority: 4/5): The episode reviews how different cultures describe relaxed or flexible time, including rubber time, island time, and Indian stretchable time. Infantile amnesia and memory development (Priority: 5/5): The final round revisits why humans and many mammals forget early childhood memories, with theories ranging from Freud to brain development and species differences.

Key Arguments: Birds can intentionally swallow stones, known as gastroliths, which help in digestion; ostriches can contain surprisingly large quantities. Scientists studying animal behavior often uncover unexpected objects in stomachs, including diamonds, rubies, and even a pocket knife. Cats' ability to land on their feet is explained not by simple push-off but by body twisting and conservation of angular momentum. Cat injury rates after falls appear to rise up to about the eighth floor, then decline as they reach terminal velocity and relax. Astronomers use magnitudes to measure star brightness, an inverted scale where brighter stars have lower or even negative numbers. Vega serves as a standard reference star, while Sirius is the brightest star in the northern hemisphere. Time perception and punctuality vary culturally; in places with more unpredictable daily life, flexible notions of time are socially normalized. Infantile amnesia is widespread across mammals and may be more about brain development and maturation than Freud's repression theory.

Data Points: Ostrich gastrolith mass: up to 3 kilos - Oliver Wing says ostriches can have up to three kilos of stones in their gizzards. Sample size mentioned: 400 ostriches - Oliver Wing notes he has samples from 400 ostriches. Cat fall injury peak: about the 8th floor - Greg Gabr reports injuries increase with fall height up to around the eighth floor before decreasing. Cat fall metric: terminal velocity at about the 7th or 8th floor - The discussion links reduced injuries to cats reaching terminal velocity around that height. Vega magnitude: 0 - Steve Fosse explains Vega is the standard star and has magnitude zero. Sirius magnitude: -1.4 - Steve Fosse states Sirius is the brightest star in the northern sky and has magnitude minus 1.4. Giraffe independence example: giraffes are cited as relatively free-living mammals - Used in the infantile amnesia discussion as an example of animals that may retain infant memories. Presenter score gap: 13 and 4/6 vs 9.5 - Final quiz results show Alex winning over Marnie and Caroline in last place.

Pivotal Quotes: "The amount of victims in such a short time was unbelievable." — Promo narrator: Opening promotional teaser for CyberHack: Evil Core, emphasizing the scale of the cybercrime case. "there have been cases where even precious stones, games, have been found in the stomach of birds, like diamonds." — Dr. Oliver Wings: Describing unusual objects found in bird stomachs during the gastrolith segment. "The brightest star in the sky is Sirius. And Sirius is actually brighter than Vega." — Steve Fosse: Explaining stellar brightness and the magnitude scale during the astronomy round.

Implications: The episode makes science memorable by pairing facts with humor and competition, reinforcing how research can be both rigorous and delightfully odd. It also shows that everyday assumptions about animals, time, and memory often hide deeper scientific complexity.