FUNDAMENTALS

Christopher Columbus discovered America instead of his original destination India. This Sunday's quiz is on some of the world's best known happy accidents.

Write with your suggestions, questions (with answers) to senjam@gmail.com.

ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES

1. The story goes that an American chef once had a customer complaint that his potato fries were cut too thick. So he sliced a potato paper-thin and fried it to a crisp, inventing potato chips by mistake. Name the chef ?

2. What medical observation was made in a Welsh hamlet Merthyr Tydfil in

1992 during the trials of a new angina drug?

3. What did Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discover when in 1943 he was researching a chemical for inducing childbirth?

4. What was discovered in

1895 when a German scientist saw the bone of his hand projected on a wall?

5. What was discovered in

1928 when a scientist researching the flu noticed that a blue-green mold had infected one of his petri dishes and killed the staphylococcus bacteria growing in it?

6. Spencer Silver, a researcher in 3M Laboratories, was experimenting on a strong adhesive, but ended up creating weak ones. What serendipitously got invented as a result?

7. What happened when magnetrons that powered Allied Radar in World War II melted a candy bar in Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer's pocket?

8. What did Charles Goodyear rediscover in

1839 when he unintentionally dropped a rubber-sulfur compound onto a hot stove?

9. Medieval wine merchants used to boil the water out of wine so it would keep better and take up less space at sea. One of them decided to bypass the reconstitution stage. What drink was born out of that experiment?

10. What was invented when two brothers John and Will left a pot of boiled grain on a stove by mistake for several days?

ANYTHING GOES

1. What was created in

1968 when an institution named Sveriges Riksbank donated some money to commemorate its 300th anniversary? (S Miracle, Secunderabad)

2. This Bollywood hit movie of 1973 was originally titled as Raag Ragini. It became more popular in Sri Lanka, than in India, where it screened continuously for

590 days in the same cinema hall-Empire, in Colombo. Identify the movie? (Arnab Ghosal, Secunderabad)

3. This was invented in the 1920s by Leo Gersentzang after he saw his wife use a toothpick and some cotton to accomplish a particular task. Initially, he named them 'Baby Gays', but later, in order to signify quality, he came up with a new brand name. What? (Dee Surendranath, Hyderabad)

4. This political personality suffered only one defeat in his entire electoral career. Chittaranjan Das of Congress defeated him in the 1989 election for the Kalwakurthy Assembly constituency. Identify the personality?(U.N.Murthy, Secunderabad)

5. What was first published by Patrick Mathew in his book “On Naval Timber and Arboriculture” in 1831? (Bikram Keshari Jena, Nayagarh)

6. “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words “- Which famous poet do you attribute this line to? (BK Harinath, Mysuru)

7. Fraternal twins are also called dizygotic twins. What distinguishes Fraternal twins from other twins? (Nivriti Sreelekha P., Secunderabad)

8. The expression “Mayday”is issued to Aeroplanes and Ships to denote an emergency. What is the origin of this term?(Philip Joshua, Secunderabad)