What Is This Thing Called Love? Quiz

Answer: Isaac Newton

Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, the year that Galileo died. He lived a chaste and lonely life: he never married, and much of his life was consumed by studies. At Cambridge University, he made great advances in mathematics, generalizing the binomial theorem and inventing a system of fluxions that would be the basis of differential calculus.

When the university closed over a plague scare in 1665, Newton returned home and worked on some of his greatest scientific achievements, including universal gravitation, optics, and color.

In later life, he became a Christian scholar (unlike Galileo, Newton's ideas about astronomy were not considered heretical), a member of Parliament, and warden of the Royal Mint. In 1705, he became the first scientist to be knighted by the queen of England, but he died soon after, in 1727, probably due to a toxic buildup of mercury from alchemy experimentation.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

The plot of Romeo and Juliet did not originate with Shakespeare; like many of the Bard's works, it had its origins in an older story. However, Shakespeare's dramatization of the story was one of his most successful early works and has since led to dozens of spinoffs and retellings (perhaps the most famous is the musical "West Side Story").

The plot of "Romeo and Juliet" begins with a simple fight between two rival houses in the city of Verona, Italy: the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo and Benvolio appear on the stage, and Romeo complains that Rosaline has failed to return his love ("She hath Dian's wit"). Being the good-natured friend, Benvolio manages to sneak Romeo into a masked ball hosted by the Capulets so that he can catch a glimmer of Rosaline anyway. Romeo instead falls for a young girl named Juliet, whom Lord Capulet has promised to her cousin Paris. The teenagers fall madly in love, best expressed during the famous "balcony" scene ("But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?") They get married quickly by Friar Laurence. Unfortunately, Romeo accidentally kills Juliet's cousin Tybalt, and gets banished from the town. A plan to reunite the lovers is botched, and they end up committing suicide in Juliet's "crypt," each believing that his or her lover was dead.

Answer: Patton

Scott became the first-ever actor to reject an Academy Award when he insulted the organization's bureaucratic, insincere attempts to make money. The film "Patton" was only the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 1970, behind "Love Story," "Airplane," and "MASH." "Love Story" actually earned nearly twice as much as "Patton" in the box office, and had already won Best Picture for Drama at the Golden Globes (Scott won for Best Actor, and Ali MacGraw took Best Actress at both the Globes and the Oscars).

"Love Story" is considered a forerunner of the popular "chick flick" genre. The plot traces the love between rich Harvard student Oliver Barrett (Ryan O'Neal) and Jennifer Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), as Jennifer dies from leukemia. Based on a novel by Erich Segal, the film rated ninth on the AFI's list of romances, "100 Years...100 Passions" and earned number 13 on the Institute's top 100 movie quotes with "Love means never having to say you're sorry".

Answer: Atalanta

Atalanta is one of the more interesting stories from Greek myth. She was born in the wilderness and was suckled by a she-bear. Becoming a powerful hunter, Atalanta took an oath of chastity to the goddess Artemis, and she killed two centaurs that tried to take advantage of her.

During the famous Calydonian Boar Hunt, Atalanta joined Meleager and a group of heroes who attempted to subdue the boar sent by Artemis. She succeeded in wounding the boar, but Meleager was the one who finally killed it. When he offered the skin to Atalanta, the other men on the expedition grew angry enough for a fight to break out. Meleager killed the men (some of whom were his uncles); in retribution, his mother killed him by burning a magical brand.

Atalanta then promised that she would marry any man who could beat her in a footrace, but that the losers would be killed. Many men tried and failed to win her. Finally, Hippomenes won her with the help of Aphrodite's golden apples, which distracted Atalanta for long enough that he barely managed to outrun her. For displeasing Zeus, Atalanta and Hippomenes were eventually turned into lions (which, according to the ancient Greeks, could not mate with each other, only with leopards).

Answer: Toxic chemicals were tapped during a construction project

The origins of the Love Canal date to William T. Love, a New York businessman who intended to connect the Niagara River's upper and lower halves (there's a big waterfall separating them!). Love hoped that the project would bring money into the western part of New York state, and would provide the region with hydroelectricity. However, the project was soon abandoned, and the canal went unfinished. During the '20s, the canal became a dump site for the city, and in the early '40s, the United States government used it to dump waste from war projects, including the Manhattan Project. Later, the Hooker Chemical Company gained exclusive rights to dump its wastes into the canal, which were put into 55-gallon storage barrels.

As the population of Niagara Falls expanded, so did a need for space. The local school board insisted that the Hooker Company sell some of the land on the canal for the construction of the 99th Street School. Hooker was reluctant to acquiesce, knowing the dangerous chemicals buried underground, but the school board finally won. Construction was a mess: the clay-lined barriers constructed by Hooker were broken to make a playground and road system. Chemicals began to seep through the soil after a very wet winter.

By 1979, the region had caught the nation's attention. Chemicals existed in public water supplies at alarmingly high concentrations, and one study found that 56% of Niagara Falls children were born with birth defects. The federal government under Carter announced a health emergency, and thousands of families were relocated or reimbursed for the environmental disaster.

Answer: Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen had a very odd life. Born in Odense, Denmark in 1805, Andersen was considered a distant relative of the king of Denmark, Frederick VI (some historians believe he might have been an illegitimate son). Frederick paid for his education, and Andersen began a career as an actor with a soprano voice. However, his voice soon broke, and he turned to a literary career, beginning with the successful publication of "The Improvisatore" in 1834.

Andersen became famous for his fairy tales soon after, especially his works like "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Mermaid". However, the author frequently battled depression, dyslexia, and loneliness, having vowed never to marry earlier in his life. He stayed for five weeks at Charles Dickens' house in London, and became an unwelcome houseguest; allegedly, the character of Uriah Heep in "David Copperfield" is based on Andersen's odd personality. He fell in love with Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," but she refused romance. Andersen fell out of bed in 1872, hurt himself badly, and died three years later, leaving behind of legacy of stories like "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "Thumbelina".

Answer: Tennis

Tennis players have a reason to spurn love: it means they haven't scored any points yet! "Big" Bill Tilden got his nickname for his very fast serve and dominance on the tennis court. During the pre-Open Era, when Grand Slam tournament were open only to amateur players, he amassed 10 Grand Slam titles, including six consecutive US Opens. Even more astonishing was that he did it almost effortlessly. Never dominating the game at an early age, Tilden picked it up in college by practicing for hours against a backboard. His diet was notoriously poor for a professional athlete, and he often "threw" sets to make matches more interesting. The first American to win Wimbledon, he would later coach Germany in Davis Cup. During the famous 1937 match between Gottfried von Cramm and Don Budge, Tilden coached his protege Cramm to an excruciating loss.

Despite his failure to engage in relationships with woman, Tilden was accused of "moral charges of misdemeanor" which weakened his public image. He died in relative infamy.

Answer: Elizabeth I

The daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558 and ruled until her death in 1603. The question of her marriage was heated for much of the reign: Parliament wanted her to marry, hoping that it would dilute some of her authority. Childhood relationships with Lord Robert Dudley became significant one year into her rule, when several men vied for the queen's hand. Then, in 1560, Dudley's wife fell down a staircase and died, and suspicions were laid on Dudley himself. However, Dudley eventually remarried, and it wasn't to Queen Elizabeth.

In 1559, Philip II of Spain also proposed to Elizabeth (though that relationship would eventually blossom into war and the destruction of the Spanish Armada). Although she had aspirations for political ties to the Hapsburgs, the relationships faltered, and she remained unmarried for life. Her image as a "virgin queen" (although the queen's celibacy is unknown) cemented her power and public opinion.

Answer: Earthquakes

During an earthquake, Love waves are the most destructive to areas outside of the earthquake's epicenter (the region on the surface directly above the actual release of seismic energy). Earthquakes release four major types of seismic waves: P, S, Love, and Rayleigh. P waves are longitudinal (they propagate in the direction they are moving, such as a slinky toy or a sound wave) and travel very fast. S waves are slower and are transverse (they propagate perpendicular to that direction, in more familiar wave descriptions). Both P and S waves are body waves, meaning they travel through the Earth.

On the contrary, surface waves travel (you guessed it!) on the surface of the Earth. Rayleigh waves are the slowest, and act almost like ripples spreading out from the epicenter. Love waves are also longitudinal and cause the shaking of the ground that is so familiar in visual representations of earthquakes. Proposed by scientist AEH Love in 1911, they travel faster than Rayleigh waves and have much, much greater amplitudes. Love waves decay slowly, meaning they spread out long distances away from the earthquake's epicenter, and they cause destruction on a macroscopic scale.

Answer: Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is a fascinating adaptation for organisms who no longer use sexual reproduction as a means of genetic diversity. The problem with asexual reproduction is that it means all offspring have exactly the same genes as their parents- so if the organisms are introduced to a hostile environment, they cannot adapt through recombination of alleles. However, in stabile habitats, asexual reproduction has its advantages: it's faster and doesn't require a male and female. Although whiptail lizards are perhaps the most famous organisms that practice parthenogenesis, it is by no means limited to them. Aphids and other invertebrates can reproduce asexually, and it has rarely been expressed in vertebrate species. Sharks are one notable example of large animals that can occasionally produce offspring without fertilization.

The mechanism of parthenogenesis is tricky. It has never been observed in mammals in the wild, although an increase in calcium levels in an egg cell (which normally occurs through fertilization) could be induced artificially and possibly lead to meiosis and embryonic development.