Missing ingredients, brand new colours and the chances of alien life – take the Thursday quiz

A person and their dog dressed up at the 2021 Roswell UFO festival Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock

Gather round, faithful quizzers, for another adventure is at hand. Dare you tackle our 15 questions on topical news, general knowledge and pop culture trivia? If you do, you will be excited to find you are being treated to a brand new regular feature. The quiz is also, as ever, littered with a few silly in-jokes and references, which you can point out in the comments when you spot them. Enjoy!

The Thursday quiz, No 207

1. 

   The viral trend for so-called Dubai chocolate has sparked an international shortage of which ingredient?

   1. Almonds

   2. Hazelnuts

   3. Pistachios

   4. Very naughty miniature dachshunds

2. 

   Eye boffins, which the Thursday quiz believes is the correct technical term, claim to have made people experience a brand new colour by bombarding their retinas with lasers for no readily apparent reason. What have they called the new colour?

   1. Olo

   2. Uvl

   3. Noryx

   4. Derek

3. 

   The chances of anything coming from Mars (pictured) are a million to one, they say, but nevertheless boffins of the space variety (also the correct technical term) reckon they may have detected signs of life on which catchily named exoplanet?

   1. X3-24b

   2. K2-18b

   3. Y4-46d

   4. UB-40

4. 

   Talking of space, Nasa's oldest astronaut (not pictured) returned to Earth after a seven-month mission on the International Space Station (also not pictured). How old is Don Pettit?

   1. 62

   2. 70

   3. 78

   4. 84

5. 

   Police in Sri Lanka are investigating reports that, despite tight security, somebody managed to take a photograph of a rare relic of the Buddha. What?

   1. A garment

   2. A finger bone

   3. A lock of hair

   4. A tooth

6. 

   Twenty-one humanoid robots (although not the one pictured) joined thousands of runners at a half-marathon over the weekend. Where?

   1. Beijing

   2. Seoul

   3. Osaka

   4. Hanoi

7. 

   The Who have been keeping whom on his toes as drummer, appearing to publicly sack him and then reinstate him in short succession?

   1. James McCartney

   2. Dhani Harrison

   3. Sean Lennon

   4. Zak Starkey

8. 

   Talking of the Beatles, here is Karl-Heinz with his opening lines. This week the Thursday quiz imagines the German soccer legend would like you to see if you can remember the opening line to And I Love Her by the Beatles. Is it …

   1. I've got every reason on earth to be mad

   2. I give her all my love

   3. Whoa, I … I got a whole lot of things to tell her

   4. Before this dance is through, I think I'll love you, too

9. 

   A brand new round! "Farther or nearer with Geordie Alan Shearer" makes its debut. This week we imagine the England soccer legend wants to know, if he leaves his home town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is farther or nearer – Moscow or Lisbon?

   1. As the crow flies, Moscow is nearer to Newcastle-upon-Tyne than Lisbon

   2. As the crow flies, Lisbon is nearer to Newcastle-upon-Tyne than Moscow

10. 

    Everybody knows that Donald Trump recently unilaterally tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. But what is the gulf on Mexico's west coast called?

    1. Gulf of California

    2. Gulf of La Paz

    3. Gulf of Sonora

    4. Gulf of Ronald

11. 

    It is Tony Visconti's birthday today. Happy birthday Tony! As well as producing Indiscreet by Sparks, he produced 11 studio albums by David Bowie. Which was the last Bowie album that he worked on?

    1. Heathen (2002)

    2. Reality (2003)

    3. The Next Day (2013)

    4. Blackstar (2016)

12. 

    Anthony Albanese claimed a cultural victory for Australia when authorities in which country relented and permitted the sale of Vegemite in an Australian-themed cafe, after initially raising fears over food standards?

    1. Canada

    2. Japan

    3. United Arab Emirates

    4. Brazil

13. 

    Which Batman actor (not pictured, that's cosplay) recently broke ranks and said he hated his costume and that it was “horrendous to wear” and “made it difficult to make the movie”?

    1. Christian Bale

    2. George Clooney

    3. Ben Affleck

    4. David Tennant

14. 

    Yet another "Texas school has banned X" question, sorry. This time someone has banned children from learning about which US state, because its flag and seal depict a Roman goddess and you can – the shock, the horror, we can barely write the words – see an artist's drawing of her exposed left breast

    1. Maryland

    2. Virginia

    3. Pennsylvania

    4. Missouri

15. 

    This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She knows that the artists Nnena Kalu, Mohammed Sami, Rene Matić and Zadie Xa have all been nominated for the Turner prize. But what does the winner receive?

    1. £25,000

    2. £250,000

    3. £2.5m

    4. 30-50 feral hogs

Solutions

1:C - Yes it is pistachio that makes up the filling of the bars. The price has soared as increased demand has affected supply, 2:A - Apparently it is a super-saturated blue-green sort of thing. John Barbur, a vision scientist at City St George’s, University of London, said when asked about the experiment: "It is not a new colour.", 3:B - It sits in the constellation of Leo, 124 light years away, and could do with a catchier name if you are going to remember it beyond tomorrow, 4:B - It was the fourth spaceflight for Pettit, who has logged more than 18 months in orbit during his 29-year career. The Thursday quiz has trouble going up the stairs these days, let alone into space, and is significantly younger, 5:D - It is kept at the aptly named Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, and is rarely on public display, 6:A - One fell at the starting line and lay flat for a few minutes, which is how the Thursday quiz imagines it might tackle the prospect of running a half-marathon, 7:D - The son of the drummer of the Beatles has been drumming for the Who since 1996, 8:B - It was one of Paul's songs on the A Hard Day's Night LP in the UK, 9:B - It is true. Lisbon is about 1,900km from Alan Shearer's home town, while Moscow is about 2,450km away. Top bins!, 10:A - It is also sometimes called the Sea of Cortés and the Vermilion Sea, 11:D - Bowie's final album was produced by the singer himself with Visconti, who also had huge success over the years producing T-Rex, and the Thursday quiz is going to see Visconti live in London next month, 12:A - The move is sure to be a relief to Australians all over Canada, 13:C - He claimed "there’s no thought put into the human being", which could also apply to the 152-minute runtime of the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that he appeared in, 14:B - The school district acknowledged that Virginia had been removed from a website because it violated the school board’s local library policy banning any "visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity" in elementary school library material, 15:A - An exhibition of the four artists’ work will be staged later in the year at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall art gallery, as part of its UK City of Culture programme, before the winner is announced on 9 December at a ceremony in the city

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun. Let us know how you got on in the comments!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working and are absolutely 100% positive you aren’t attempting to factcheck a joke – you can complain about it in the comments below. Why not watch Aerial Troubles by Stereolab instead?

Aerial Troubles by Stereolab