[Nature]

1. Does the female mantis eat her mate?
2. What desert cat is a deadly hunter?
3. What is green and covered in poisonous warts?
4. How did the domino beetle get its name?
5. Where do gerbils store their food?
6. Which spider eats until it drops?
7. What lizard spends most of its life asleep?
8. Which snake moves sideways?
9. Which animal mother employs a nanny?
10. The chicks of which bird drinks water from their father's breast?

[Science]

1. What is the international Morse Code distress signal?
2. Name the two men responsible for the invention of the incandescent (white-hot) electric light bulb.
3. By 1913, the tungsten filament (a type of metal) that is still used today had been introduced. True/false?
4. A magnetic force can travel through many substances. Can it travel through water?
5. What is an oscilloscope?
6. Name two types of light found in natural sunlight.
7. The eye which is like a small, but accurate camera perceives colour because of three sets of receptors. What are they called?
8. Thousands of years ago natural pigments from the Earth were being used by Stone Age artists to create cave paintings. True/false?
9. Who was the first person to photograph a horse in full gallop, using 12 cameras in sequence?
10. Name the French physicist who demonstrated the rotation of the Earth in 1851?

Answers:

[Nature]

1. In some species of mantis the male is at risk of being the female's dinner if he does not avoid her clutches. The first part to be eaten is usually the male's head.

2. The caracal is a fast, powerful cat from African and Asian deserts. The strong, agile hunter has large paws that can deliver a mighty blow. The caracal also has sharp claws and fierce canine teeth to rip its victim's flesh.

3. Green toads of East Africa have poison glands behind their eyes, and also poisonous warts all over their bodies. The warts produce a horrible-tasting fluid and will put off any predator that has ever tried to eat the toad.

4. The domino beetle is so called because of the white spots on its black body. The coloration acts as a warning signal showing that the beetle is armed with poisonous chemicals. Predators that have been sprayed with poison once will avoid the beetles in the future.

5. In the pouches in its cheeks. When a gerbil finds a good source of food it fills up the pouches and goes to the safety of its burrow to eat.

6. The Camel Spider of African deserts are greedy hunters. They can eat as many as 100 insects in a day and sometimes get so full they can hardly walk.

7. The chuckwalla lizard is up and about in spring and early summer. It spends its waking days feeding on flowers but sleeps for seven months of the year when the weather is harsh and food is scarce.

8. Sidewinder snakes of North America. They move by looping their body and slithering sideways. Scales on the underside of the snake leaves a fine line of parallel tracks across the desert.

9. Young meerkats are born in the safety of the underground colony. Like all mammals they feed on their mother's milk. However, female meerkats known as ‘nannies’ look after the babies when their mothers go out to find food.

10. Sandgrouse are birds of South African deserts. They fly a long way to drink water daily. The male bird also visits the waterhole to bring water to his thirsty chicks. He wades in and soaks up water with his fluffy breast feathers. When he flies back to the nest, the chicks drink water from the soggy feathers.

[Science]

1. S.O.S. - three short, three long, three short flashes.
2. Thomas Edison, an American and Joseph Swan, an Englishman.
3. True.
4. Yes.
5. An oscilloscope is a machine that can measure sound waves.
6. Infrared rays and ultraviolet rays. They are both invisible to our eyes.
7. Cones - one for each of the primary colours.
8. True.
9. Eadweard Muybridge.
10. J.B.L. Foucault.