The Night of the Living Bread Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stilton

Stilton, the semi-soft cheese with the recognisable blue veins, is named for the village where it was first widely marketed rather than from the village where it originated. Its exact origins are not known, but it is believed that Cooper Thornhill, the man who sold the cheese in the Cambridgeshire village, first came across it in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, a place name that is more synonymous with pork pies. Since 1996, the name Stilton can only be given to cheeses made in the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

The fungus that creates the distinctive blue veins is Penicillium roqueforti. The same fungus is present in the blue veined cheeses Roquefort and Gorgonzola.

Answer: Quorn

It sounds so attractive when you put it like that doesn't it? However, it sounds a lot more palatable when you think of it as being just a mushroom-based protein, which is how it was originally marketed (to much consternation in the US, who ruled against that description). Quorn was developed in the UK as a joint venture between the food company Rank Hovis McDougall and Imperial Chemical Industries.

The idea for it was inspired by the processes that had been developed in creating single cell proteins for animal feed. Quorn, named after a village in Leicestershire, England, is grown in oxygenated water in fermentation tanks and then cut into shapes that make it more visually attractive for sale as a foodstuff.

Answer: Joseph Lister

Lister is famed for his ideas, inspired by the writings of Louis Pasteur, around cleanliness in the surgical arena that resulted in vast improvements in post-operative infection rates among patients. His breakthrough came with the use of phenol for sterilising surgical instruments, which he found highly effective at destroying the bacteria that were present around surgical wounds.

In 1871, some four years after he presented his paper, "Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery", to the Royal Society, he noted that penicillium moulds also showed promising antibacterial qualities, however he chose not to pursue the development of this substance any further.

Answer: To prevent rejection of transplanted organs

One of the great dangers of surgical replacement of failing organs, after the difficulty of finding a suitable donor, is that the body's immune system will naturally treat the new organ as a foreign body and start attacking it. Therefore, it was important to find effective immunosuppressants that could improve survival chances. Step forward, ciclosporin, whose effectiveness in this regard was discovered in a Swiss lab in the early 1970s.

Ciclosporin has other medical uses. It is effective in treating a range of skin complaints, including hives, ulcers and dermatitis.

Answer: Phytophthora infestans (Late blight)

In the mid-18th century, the Irish population grew significantly, in no small part due to the potato. Being as packed with vitamins and nutrients as it was, a potato combined with a bit of cow's milk (from butter for example) was enough to give the average person all the sustenance their body needed for the day.

Therefore, when whole fields of potato crops failed it was a disaster. Phytophthora infestans takes as little as five days to render its host inedible, and is unfortunately difficult to detect in its early days as the tell-tale white mildew appears on the underside of potato leaves and can attack the tubers underground without any trace above ground.

The destruction of the potato crop by the fungus contributed to over one million deaths in the period from 1845-7 and the flight to North America of possibly as many as twice that number in that time. Post-blight Ireland's population was just 25% of what it had been prior to the famine.

Answer: Sick building syndrome

Sick building syndrome is an umbrella term for a series of ailments suffered by occupiers of an infected building. These ailments can include inflammation and irritation of the eyes, throat and skin and are more frequently reported by women.

Though the exact cause of SBS is not known for certain, it undoubtedly has some connection to air quality. Toxic black mould, or Stachybotrys chartarum to give it its scientific name, is commonly found growing on drywalls and is believed to be one significant contributor as its spores will circulate in the air of a poorly ventilated building.

Answer: New York City

Born in England, Mould moved to the US in 1852 to oversee the re-building in Manhattan of the great exhibition of the previous year in England. When the New York State commission held a competition to design a new park in 700 acres of land in the centre of Manhattan, the developers of the winning plan, known as the Greensward plan, selected Mould as their chief architect.

Many of the original features of the park that are so highly regarded today are the work of Mould, including the bandstand and Bethesda Castle.

Answer: Coldplay

Buckland formed Coldplay with singer Chris Martin when the two were at University together in London. Fellow students Guy Berryman and Will Champion were added to make the group a foursome going by the name of Pectoralz. A couple of name changes later they were Coldplay, in time for the release of their first EP "Safety" in 1998. Two years later they hit the UK top 40 for the first time and "Yellow" hit the top five. Both singles came from debut album, "Parachutes", a UK number one that was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in the UK and won the Grammy for best alternative album in the US. The same prize was also claimed by second album, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" the following year.

The band scored their first UK and US number one singles with the song "Viva La Vida" in 2008.

Answer: Husker Du

Hailing from Minnesota, Husker Du formed as a threesome in 1979. Though they never hit the big time, they were highly influential in the US indie scene in the 1980s. "Zen Arcade", a concept album recorded in the space of just 48 hours, was a critical success (though not a commercial one) on its release in 1984. The band signed on to a major label in 1986 and their first major release was "Candy Apple Grey". Sadly it was also their last as the old chestnut of "artistic differences" tore the band apart.

Mould went on to more mainstream success with his next band, Sugar, who recorded three albums that each hit the top 10 of the UK album charts.

Answer: Craftsmen broke their moulds to prevent anyone copying their work

To "break the mould" means to create something unique. Craftsmen would ensure the value of their creations by breaking the mould with which they were created so that they could not be copied, thereby limiting the number that were available in the marketplace.