Which organ pumps blood around the body?
Answer : The heart
The heart keeps blood circulating.
Questions and answers: Medicine & Human Body
Revise Medicine & Human Body: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Medicine & Human Body quizzesVery easy
Which organs allow us to breathe?
Answer : The lungs
The lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.
About how many bones does an adult have?
Answer : 206
The adult skeleton has 206 bones.
Which organ lets us think and controls the body?
Answer : The brain
The brain controls thought and movement.
What is the largest organ of the human body?
Answer : The skin
The skin covers the whole body.
How many classic senses do humans have?
Answer : 5
Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.
Which instrument measures body temperature?
Answer : The thermometer
A thermometer measures fever.
Which body part is used to chew food?
Answer : The teeth
Teeth grind up food.
Easy
Which of these is a blood group of the ABO system?
Answer : AB
The ABO groups are A, B, AB and O.
Who discovered penicillin in 1928?
Answer : Alexander Fleming
Fleming noticed the antibacterial effect of a mould.
Which organ produces insulin?
Answer : The pancreas
The pancreas regulates blood sugar with insulin.
Which bone protects the brain?
Answer : The skull
The skull encloses and protects the brain.
Who developed the first vaccine, against smallpox, in 1796?
Answer : Edward Jenner
Jenner used cowpox to protect against smallpox.
Which organs filter the blood and produce urine?
Answer : The kidneys
The kidneys remove waste from the blood.
What is the longest bone in the human body?
Answer : The femur
The femur is the thigh bone.
What do red blood cells mainly carry?
Answer : Oxygen
Red blood cells carry oxygen.
Medium
Which protein in red blood cells binds oxygen?
Answer : Haemoglobin
Haemoglobin contains iron and binds oxygen.
Against which disease did Louis Pasteur develop a vaccine in 1885?
Answer : Rabies
Pasteur tested his vaccine on Joseph Meister.
What is the smallest bone in the human body?
Answer : The stapes
The stapes is in the middle ear.
A lack of which vitamin causes scurvy?
Answer : Vitamin C
Scurvy affected sailors without fresh fruit.
Who discovered X-rays in 1895?
Answer : Wilhelm Röntgen
Röntgen won the first Nobel Prize in Physics.
Which part of the eye detects light and sends signals to the brain?
Answer : The retina
The retina contains the light-sensitive cells.
Which gland in the neck regulates metabolism?
Answer : The thyroid
The thyroid secretes metabolic hormones.
What is the main role of white blood cells?
Answer : Defending the body against infection
They are part of the immune system.
Hard
Who described the circulation of blood in 1628?
Answer : William Harvey
Harvey showed that the heart pumps blood in a circuit.
Which bacterium did Robert Koch identify in 1882?
Answer : The one causing tuberculosis
Koch isolated the tuberculosis bacillus.
Which cells give rise to the plasma cells that make antibodies?
Answer : B lymphocytes
B lymphocytes differentiate into plasma cells.
Which cranial nerve links the brain to many organs of the chest and abdomen?
Answer : The vagus nerve
The vagus nerve (X) supplies heart, lungs and gut.
Who discovered the A, B and O blood groups in 1901?
Answer : Karl Landsteiner
Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize in 1930.
What is the functional unit of the kidney called?
Answer : The nephron
Each kidney has about a million nephrons.
A deficiency of which vitamin causes beriberi?
Answer : Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Beriberi results from a lack of thiamine.
Who gave the first public demonstration of ether anaesthesia in 1846?
Answer : William T. G. Morton
It took place at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Expert
Which structure of the inner ear is responsible for hearing?
Answer : The cochlea
The cochlea turns vibrations into nerve signals.
Which hormone is secreted by the pineal gland?
Answer : Melatonin
Melatonin is involved in the sleep-wake rhythm.
Which Canadian physician co-discovered insulin in 1921 with Charles Best?
Answer : Frederick Banting
Banting received the Nobel Prize in 1923.
What did Rosalind Franklin's famous "Photo 51" show?
Answer : X-ray diffraction of DNA
This image helped establish the double helix.
Which cells make myelin in the central nervous system?
Answer : Oligodendrocytes
Schwann cells do it in the peripheral system.
Which cranial nerve number is the optic nerve?
Answer : II
The olfactory nerve is I, the optic nerve is II.
Which brain structure is essential for forming new long-term memories, as shown by patient H.M.?
Answer : The hippocampus
Removing his hippocampus left him unable to form new memories.
Lyme disease is caused by which genus of bacteria?
Answer : Borrelia
It is transmitted by ticks.
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