Medicine and Health Quiz
Vaccines, X-rays, cholera maps and the first heart transplant: 15 questions on how medicine learned to heal.
Which part of the body is damaged by glaucoma?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Eyes
Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged, usually because of raised pressure inside the eye, and it is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.
Glaucoma often has no symptoms in its early stages, which is why routine eye pressure checks matter so much for people over 40.
Hepatitis is inflammation of which organ?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Liver
Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver, and it can be caused by viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D and E), alcohol, certain drugs or autoimmune disease.
The hepatitis B vaccine, introduced in the early 1980s, was the first vaccine shown to prevent a human cancer, in this case liver cancer.
Which chronic condition results from the body failing to produce or properly use insulin?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas makes too little insulin (type 1) or the body cannot use insulin effectively (type 2), leaving too much glucose circulating in the blood.
Insulin was first used to treat a patient in January 1922 in Toronto, turning a once fatal diagnosis into a manageable condition.
What does a sphygmomanometer measure?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Blood pressure
A sphygmomanometer is the inflatable cuff and gauge used to measure blood pressure, recorded as two numbers in millimetres of mercury, such as 120 over 80.
The first number, systolic pressure, is measured as the heart contracts; the second, diastolic, is measured as it relaxes between beats.
In medical imaging, what does the abbreviation MRI stand for?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to build detailed pictures of soft tissue without using ionising radiation.
Because the magnet is so strong, patients must remove anything metallic, and even a stray oxygen cylinder can be pulled across the room.
Which English doctor created the first smallpox vaccine in 1796 using material from cowpox sores?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner inoculated eight year old James Phipps with cowpox from a milkmaid's hand and later showed the boy was immune to smallpox, launching the science of vaccination.
The word vaccine comes from vacca, the Latin for cow, a nod to the cowpox that made Jenner's method work.
In which year did the World Health Organization declare smallpox eradicated worldwide?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
1980
The WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in May 1980, following a worldwide vaccination campaign; the last naturally occurring case had been diagnosed in 1977.
Smallpox remains the only human disease ever eradicated, with the last known samples held in secure laboratories in the United States and Russia.
Which German physicist discovered X-rays in 1895 and received the first ever Nobel Prize in Physics?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Wilhelm Röntgen
Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a mysterious glow while experimenting with cathode ray tubes in November 1895, named the unknown radiation X-rays, and won the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
One of Röntgen's first X-ray images showed the bones of his wife's hand, complete with her wedding ring.
Who developed the first polio vaccine, declared safe and effective in April 1955?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk's injected vaccine, made from killed poliovirus, was announced safe and effective on 12 April 1955 after a huge field trial involving more than a million American children.
Salk never patented the vaccine, and Albert Sabin's rival oral vaccine on a sugar cube went into commercial use in 1961.
In which country did Christiaan Barnard perform the first human heart transplant in 1967?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
South Africa
Barnard transplanted a donor heart into 54 year old grocer Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 December 1967.
Washkansky lived for 18 days before dying of pneumonia, but Barnard's second patient survived more than 18 months.
Aspirin was developed from a compound originally found in the bark of which tree?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Willow
Willow bark contains salicin, which the body converts into salicylic acid, and in 1897 chemists at Bayer produced the gentler acetylsalicylic acid that was sold as Aspirin from 1899.
Hippocrates recommended willow bark and leaves for pain and fever more than 2,000 years before aspirin reached the pharmacy.
Which British surgeon pioneered antiseptic surgery in the 1860s by using carbolic acid?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Joseph Lister
Working at Glasgow Royal Infirmary from 1865, Joseph Lister applied carbolic acid to wounds, instruments and dressings, and deaths from post operative infection on his wards fell sharply.
The mouthwash Listerine, launched in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic, was named in his honour, as was the bacterium Listeria.
During the 1854 cholera outbreak in London, John Snow traced the disease to what?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A street water pump
Snow plotted deaths on a map of Soho and showed they clustered around the Broad Street water pump, which was later found to be contaminated by a leaking cesspit.
The parish removed the pump handle on 8 September 1854, and Snow's map is now a founding document of epidemiology.
Who discovered the ABO blood groups in 1901, making safe blood transfusions possible?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Karl Landsteiner
Karl Landsteiner showed that blood clumped when samples from certain people were mixed, sorted human blood into groups A, B and O, and won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Landsteiner later co-discovered the Rh factor in 1937, which is the plus or minus in blood types such as O negative.
Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won the 2015 Nobel Prize for discovering artemisinin, a treatment for which disease?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Malaria
Tu Youyou isolated artemisinin from sweet wormwood after searching ancient Chinese medical texts, and artemisinin based therapies are now the standard treatment for malaria worldwide.
She was the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize, sharing the 2015 medicine award with William Campbell and Satoshi Omura.
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All Science quizzes →About the Medicine and Health Quiz
Medicine has come a long way since doctors blamed bad air for disease. Edward Jenner tested the first vaccine in 1796 using pus from a milkmaid's cowpox blister, John Snow stopped a cholera outbreak in 1854 by removing a pump handle, and in 1967 a surgeon in Cape Town sewed a donor heart into a dying grocer and changed surgery forever.
These 15 questions cover common conditions and the organs they affect, the instruments in a doctor's bag, landmark vaccines and the scientists behind antiseptics, blood groups and malaria drugs. The opening questions suit anyone who has visited a clinic, the middle rewards a good general knowledge, and the final few will separate the medical history buffs from the rest.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Hard. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
How difficult is the Medicine and Health Quiz?
It is rated Hard. The first questions cover everyday conditions and instruments, then it moves into vaccines, famous doctors and Nobel Prize winning discoveries.
Do I need medical training to play?
No. Every question is written for a general audience, and each answer comes with a short explanation and an extra fact so you learn as you go.
What topics does the quiz cover?
Common illnesses, diagnostic tools like MRI and the blood pressure cuff, the history of vaccines and antiseptics, blood groups, the first heart transplant and the discovery of artemisinin.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- Which part of the body is damaged by glaucoma?
Eyes Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged, usually because of raised pressure inside the eye, and it is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma often has no symptoms in its early stages, which is why routine eye pressure checks matter so much for people over 40. - Hepatitis is inflammation of which organ?
Liver Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver, and it can be caused by viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D and E), alcohol, certain drugs or autoimmune disease. The hepatitis B vaccine, introduced in the early 1980s, was the first vaccine shown to prevent a human cancer, in this case liver cancer. - Which chronic condition results from the body failing to produce or properly use insulin?
Diabetes Diabetes mellitus occurs when the pancreas makes too little insulin (type 1) or the body cannot use insulin effectively (type 2), leaving too much glucose circulating in the blood. Insulin was first used to treat a patient in January 1922 in Toronto, turning a once fatal diagnosis into a manageable condition. - What does a sphygmomanometer measure?
Blood pressure A sphygmomanometer is the inflatable cuff and gauge used to measure blood pressure, recorded as two numbers in millimetres of mercury, such as 120 over 80. The first number, systolic pressure, is measured as the heart contracts; the second, diastolic, is measured as it relaxes between beats. - In medical imaging, what does the abbreviation MRI stand for?
Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that uses powerful magnets and radio waves to build detailed pictures of soft tissue without using ionising radiation. Because the magnet is so strong, patients must remove anything metallic, and even a stray oxygen cylinder can be pulled across the room. - Which English doctor created the first smallpox vaccine in 1796 using material from cowpox sores?
Edward Jenner Edward Jenner inoculated eight year old James Phipps with cowpox from a milkmaid's hand and later showed the boy was immune to smallpox, launching the science of vaccination. The word vaccine comes from vacca, the Latin for cow, a nod to the cowpox that made Jenner's method work. - In which year did the World Health Organization declare smallpox eradicated worldwide?
1980 The WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in May 1980, following a worldwide vaccination campaign; the last naturally occurring case had been diagnosed in 1977. Smallpox remains the only human disease ever eradicated, with the last known samples held in secure laboratories in the United States and Russia. - Which German physicist discovered X-rays in 1895 and received the first ever Nobel Prize in Physics?
Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a mysterious glow while experimenting with cathode ray tubes in November 1895, named the unknown radiation X-rays, and won the inaugural Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. One of Röntgen's first X-ray images showed the bones of his wife's hand, complete with her wedding ring. - Who developed the first polio vaccine, declared safe and effective in April 1955?
Jonas Salk Jonas Salk's injected vaccine, made from killed poliovirus, was announced safe and effective on 12 April 1955 after a huge field trial involving more than a million American children. Salk never patented the vaccine, and Albert Sabin's rival oral vaccine on a sugar cube went into commercial use in 1961. - In which country did Christiaan Barnard perform the first human heart transplant in 1967?
South Africa Barnard transplanted a donor heart into 54 year old grocer Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 December 1967. Washkansky lived for 18 days before dying of pneumonia, but Barnard's second patient survived more than 18 months. - Aspirin was developed from a compound originally found in the bark of which tree?
Willow Willow bark contains salicin, which the body converts into salicylic acid, and in 1897 chemists at Bayer produced the gentler acetylsalicylic acid that was sold as Aspirin from 1899. Hippocrates recommended willow bark and leaves for pain and fever more than 2,000 years before aspirin reached the pharmacy. - Which British surgeon pioneered antiseptic surgery in the 1860s by using carbolic acid?
Joseph Lister Working at Glasgow Royal Infirmary from 1865, Joseph Lister applied carbolic acid to wounds, instruments and dressings, and deaths from post operative infection on his wards fell sharply. The mouthwash Listerine, launched in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic, was named in his honour, as was the bacterium Listeria. - During the 1854 cholera outbreak in London, John Snow traced the disease to what?
A street water pump Snow plotted deaths on a map of Soho and showed they clustered around the Broad Street water pump, which was later found to be contaminated by a leaking cesspit. The parish removed the pump handle on 8 September 1854, and Snow's map is now a founding document of epidemiology. - Who discovered the ABO blood groups in 1901, making safe blood transfusions possible?
Karl Landsteiner Karl Landsteiner showed that blood clumped when samples from certain people were mixed, sorted human blood into groups A, B and O, and won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Landsteiner later co-discovered the Rh factor in 1937, which is the plus or minus in blood types such as O negative. - Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won the 2015 Nobel Prize for discovering artemisinin, a treatment for which disease?
Malaria Tu Youyou isolated artemisinin from sweet wormwood after searching ancient Chinese medical texts, and artemisinin based therapies are now the standard treatment for malaria worldwide. She was the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize, sharing the 2015 medicine award with William Campbell and Satoshi Omura.
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