The four Clusters of Excellence of the Northwest Alliance stand for internationally recognized, cutting-edge research and highly complex topics. An exciting quiz night in Oldenburg proved that these topics can also be entertaining.
The four Clusters of Excellence of the Northwest Alliance stand for internationally recognized, cutting-edge research and highly complex topics. An exciting quiz night in Oldenburg proved that these topics can also be entertaining. More than 30 teams experienced this firsthand at the “Excellence Edition” of QuizNight at CORE in Oldenburg. With teams ranging from two to eight members, they successfully worked their way through four rounds of questions.
The market hall at the CORE coworking and event venue is traditionally transformed into a quiz arena once a month. Host Tobias Janßen challenges participants to a battle of wits with questions spanning all fields of knowledge. Last Friday, the quiz had a special theme: “Excellence.” In addition to questions about the cities of Oldenburg and Bremen – whose universities, together as the Northwest Alliance (NWA), are currently competing for funding as a University Excellence Consortium – there were questions focused specifically on the two universities’ most renowned research areas. Prof. Dr. Katharina Al-Shamery, the University of Oldenburg’s Vice President for Academic Career Paths, Equal Opportunities, and International Affairs, welcomed the participants and posed a quiz question: “The Northwest Alliance conducts cutting-edge research in four areas: animal navigation, marine research, and resource scarcity. What is the fourth research area?”
The correct answer is “auditory research.” In keeping with this theme, moderator Tobias was joined throughout the evening by Oldenburg-based auditory researcher Dr. Thomas Schwarz, who explained how active noise cancellation works. This feature blocks out all external noise and is used daily by many people when they wear headphones. “Microphones on the headphones pick up these sounds, and the headphones then generate the appropriate counter-sound to cancel out the external noise,” he explained. This cancels out the unwanted external noise, allowing you to focus exclusively on the music or your phone call. Most participants had likely encountered so-called Shepard tones before the QuizNight event without realizing it. This auditory illusion sounds like an infinite musical scale. In movies, it’s often used to build suspense. Schwarz had brought along a short clip from Batman: The Dark Knight. The seemingly endless acceleration of the Batpod, a type of motorcycle, is an example of Shepard tones.
Also present at the event was musicologist Dr. Michel Bürgel. He brought a Vibro-Chair, developed at the University of Oldenburg. Visitors tried it out with great interest, of course only after guessing its function. After sitting down, visitors were given a pair of headphones and could hear and feel the music being played. Various vibration plates under the armrests, backrest, and seat convert the instruments and vocals into vibrations. The researchers aim to use this approach to give people with hearing impairments an additional way to experience music.
The traditional highlight of every QuizNight event is the music round. This time, however, there was live music instead of the usual format. Music students Nils Brandenburg and Elli Hasler rehearsed numerous songs and came up with tricky questions about them. Sometimes, contestants had to guess song titles and artists, sometimes they had to complete song lyrics, and sometimes they had to identify which two songs Nils and Elli had merged into a single track.
If you’re curious to see if you would have won one of the four quiz rounds, test your knowledge with these 12 out of 70 questions:
Round 1: Bremen and Oldenburg
Jürgen Krogmann’s term ends on October 31. What is the name of his counterpart in Bremen?
Answer: Andreas Bovenschulte (Mayor and President of the Bremen Senate)
Who is the largest employer in Oldenburg, and who is the largest employer in Bremen?
Answer: EWE (with about 9,000 employees) and Mercedes (with about 11,000 employees)
The president of the University of Oldenburg, Ralph Bruder, holds the German title "Präsident." Jutta Günther is the president of the University of Bremen, but her German title is different. What is it?
Answer: “Rektorin”
Round 2: Multiple Choice
What likely influences how well people understand speech in noisy environments?
a) Whether they talk a lot or a little
b) Whether they grew up bilingual
c) Whether they live in the city or the countryside
Answer b) Esther Ruigendijk, a linguist from Oldenburg, and Hanin Karawani Khoury, from the University of Haifa in Israel, are investigating whether this phenomenon affects people who speak related languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, or German and Dutch.
What do microorganisms in the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California feed on?
a) Wood from sunken ships
b) Nutrients in the sand of the seafloor
c) Seeping crude oil
Answer c) The Guaymas Basin is an active tectonic basin with hydrothermal vents known for its natural oil seeps.
How do loggerhead sea turtles make their journey across the Atlantic Ocean easier?
a) They hitch a ride on whale sharks for certain stretches.
b) They let themselves be carried by the Gulf Stream.
c) They swim in the wake of boats and ships.
Answer b)
Round 3: True or False
The average temperature on Mars is about -60 degrees Celsius. True or false?
Answer: True
The longest tracked route of a kangaroo was recorded in Australia in 2016. It hopped 2.6 million times from St. George to Capricorn. True or false?
Answer: False
There are three locations worldwide where sediment cores are archived. One of these locations is the University of Bremen. True or false?
Answer: True
Round 4: Music Round
Of these two songs, which is older: "Killing Me Softly" (Roberta Flack) or "I Wish" (Stevie Wonder)?
Answer: “Killing Me Softly” (1973; “I Wish” is from 1976)
What are the lyrics that fill in the blanks?
Traveling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said
Do you come from a land down under
Where (…)?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You (…).
Answer: Where women glow and men plunder? / You better run, you better take cover
Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” became a global hit in 1992. Who wrote and sang it about 20 years earlier?
Answer: Dolly Parton
