2025 Contest Results
Selkirk Alliance for Science hosted a weekly online science trivia contest to test the scientific knowledge and information search skills by participants. They were allowed to use Internet search engines or reference materials to find the answer. We thank all participants who entered the contest, and hope that a new awareness about science will bring informed decisions in daily life.
Our purpose is to increase personal understanding of the nature, value, and integrity of science that can benefit all communities.
No purchase was necessary for anyone to enter or win the contest, and the rewards could be entertaining, educational, and free science prizes.
Answers to the 2025 questions are provided below, so feel free to share with family, friends, and neighbors.
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Question posted January 6, 2025
What is a bird murmuration?
Answer: A bird murmuration is synchronized swirling flight (Answer “b”), usually by European starlings in a large flock. A team of researchers used citizen science to study the behavior and determined it is primarily an anti-predator adaptation. They discovered the number of birds in a flock increased significantly from October to early-February, then diminished by March. Click on this YouTube video to see this artistic beauty in nature.
Question posted January 13, 2025
A Pew Research Institute poll in February 2024 asked who Americans feel comfortable talking to about their mental health. What one entity below was chosen most often as extremely or very comfortable for that conversation?​
Answer: Fifty-seven percent of Americans are at least extremely or very comfortable talking with close friends (Answer “b”) about their mental health. Immediate family members are rated slightly less (52%), followed by mental health therapists (50%), religious or spiritual leaders (31%), and neighbors (11%). About 7 of 10 adults with a spouse or partner would choose them for sharing those difficult conversations. Not included in the list of entities were medical doctors.
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Question posted January 20, 2025
The National Centers for Environmental Information has tallied 395 natural disasters in the USA that caused at least one-billion dollars from 1980 through July 2024. What year experienced the most severe-storm disasters?
​Answer: There were 19 severe storm disasters causing damage of $1 billion or more in year 2023 (Answer “d”). The report for year 2024 tallied 15 severe storm disasters in the first seven months, suggesting that 2024 will probably eclipse the year 2023 record. During the same multiyear period since 1980, there were 19 billion-dollar wildfires (none before 1990).
Question posted January 27, 2025
What one purpose below is NOT part of scholarly peer review (aka “refereeing”) for research to be published in a scientific journal?
Answer: Determining financial profit to the publisher (Answer “c”) is not a purpose of peer review. Subject-matter experts, often anonymous to the researcher and intended readers, evaluate a researcher’s experiment to judge if the methods and findings are sound. Reviewers then suggest whether to accept, revise, or reject the research. A peer-reviewer does not certify the factual correctness of the findings, since correctness is validated or challenged by subsequent replications of the same experiment. Peer review strives to self-regulate the profession, including avoidance of misconduct.
Source: Peer Review is described in detail at this online reference
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