The History of Everything Trivia Quiz

Answer:

"Big Bang Theory" (2007-2019) was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. It is a story about the lives of two very intelligent - but socially clueless - Caltech physicists who live across the hall from a beautiful aspiring actress. Can the physicists and their rather socially awkward science friends learn to navigate through life situations while researching the mysteries of the universe and interacting with their neighbor?

The story about the show's theme song is that Chuck Lorre was in attendance at a Barenaked Ladies concert when he heard Ed Robertson, the band's lead singer and guitarist, perform a rap about the origin of the universe. Robertson had been inspired while reading "Big Bang" by Simon Singh, and Lorre, impressed by the band's ability to compact a lot of information in a short time, as seen in "One Week" (1998), decided to contact Robertson to see if he could write a song - fast - for a new sitcom that he was developing. Robertson reportedly wrote the song in the shower in fifteen minutes; Lorre and Prady loved the song, and with just a bit of tweaking, it became the theme song for what would become their hit show.

Now, forgive me if I have turned into Sheldon Cooper, but I do want to comment on the song's content. First of all, scientists do believe that 13.7-13.8 billion years ago the universe began as an extremely hot, dense point that has been compared to the interior of the Sun; it consisted of a plasma made of protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons. While the name "Big Bang" seems to mean that some sort of explosion took place, that is not what happened. Rather, it was an expansion of the point, and, as expansion took place, the universe cooled, and the energy that was created was converted into matter from which the stars and galaxies were formed.

But I must tell you that autotrophs do not drool like animals do when they eat! In fact, they produce their own food while processing sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. Plants like autotrophs are at the bottom of the food chain as they provide energy for other organisms. All green plants are autotrophs, along with algae and certain types of bacteria. So, in the song, autotrophs drooling isn't meant to be taken in the literal sense; figuratively, they are drooling because they desired to take in the yummy nutrients that were in abundance at the time they were needed in order to produce the food for other organisms. There is more than one definition of the word drool, and it rhymes well with cool and tools. !

But doesn't everyone who has studied anthropology know that Neanderthals did not develop tools? Scientists used to believe that "Homo habilis" (2.4-1.4 million years ago) was the first to develop simple stone tools, however, cut marks found on bones that are 3.39 million years old have given scientists the evidence they need to credit the development to "Australopithecis afarensis" (3.9-2.9 million years ago). Neanderthals, who lived approximately 400,000-40,000 years ago, are believed to have created more sophisticated stone tools, producing scrapers for tanning animal hides and spear points and harpoons for hunting. But wait! There are multiple definitions for the word develop. It can mean to invent, but it can also mean to cause to grow or become more advanced. So Neanderthals did advance the art of toolmaking!

"We" did build the Great Wall of China from the seventh century BC to sometime during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) in order to protect the region from various groups of invaders and regulate trade. While not a continuous wall, the series of barriers that were built were 13,171 miles (21,196 kilometers) in length. The longest structure ever built by humans, the wall does represent an important development in technology. So does the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Built in twenty years, from about 2580-2560 BC, archaeologists have never been able to decide with certainty why it was built. Was it pharaoh's tomb? Or just a structure built to show off his power? Maybe it was used to signal space aliens? The world will probably never know, but for over 3,800 years it was the tallest man-made structure on earth at 481 feet (147 meters). Except for the fact that maybe the Great Pyramid should have been mentioned first because it is the oldest, all the info is good?

While it is true that all three subjects - math, science, and history - are used in the study of the Big Bang, and history does rhyme with mysteries, Sheldon would say that only math and science are necessary to uncover those mysteries. History has connections to both Humanities (as it focuses on human cultures and values) and the Social Sciences (as it analyzes past events, etc); anything, however, that is not what Sheldon would consider a "hard science" like physics, falls into the "Inhumanities" group, which he has implied is purely "hokum". Anyway, in this respect, Sheldon would be wrong. Did I say that?

While Sheldon might not be a fan of music, and he would say mythology and astrology are hokum, it is good that Einstein was thrown in the mix, as he is mentioned over and over in the "Big Bang Theory". Einstein transformed the way people look at the universe with his theories of special and general relativity. And, it is true that many believe that the life we know it today - which includes a myriad of subjects - started with the Big Bang!

You may not know that the song is longer than what is heard on the program's theme, and does give other interesting details about the formation of the universe. It was originally released as a single, which ran for one minute and 45 seconds (the portion heard on television generally runs 25-30 seconds), but was included on the Barenaked Ladies' album, "Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before", released in 2011, as the "Big Bang Theory Theme". A special acoustic version of the song was heard during the final episode of the show in 2019. The song is alternately called "The History of Everything".