The Science Quiz | The lives of hormones

Questions:

1. On December 10, 1907, the Brown Dog riots in London saw around a thousand medical students clash with police over what the students perceived to be a threat to their ability to conduct ____________, a procedure in which a live animal is dissected. Fill in the blank.

2. The Brown Dog riots were a part of the overarching Brown Dog affair, which began when two people in the audience complained that a dog being dissected (as in Q1) by X didn’t seem to be sufficiently anaesthetised. Name X, who is credited with the discovery of hormones using one such procedure.

3. Hormones are molecules that are transmitted across a body, like messengers, to regulate physiological changes. Name the plant hormone that was also the first known gaseous hormone used to control when flowers open, when fruits ripen, and when leaves are shed.

4. When a hormone reaches a target cell, it binds to a receptor and launches a series of reactions that allow a signal borne by the hormone to reach the cell’s protein-making facility. What is the technical term for this series of reactions?

5. There are four broad ways in which a hormone can transmit its effects: endocrine (released into the blood and acts on cells), paracrine (acts on nearby cells), _________ (acts on the cells that secrete it), and intracrine (acts within a cell without exiting). Fill in the blank.

Visual:

In the 1870s, this British botanist and his father found plants use a “transmissible substance” to bend towards the light. Name him. Hint: his father is the most famous biologist in the world.

Answers:

1. Vivisections

2. William Bayliss

3. Ethylene

4. Signal transduction

5. Autocrine

Visual: Francis Darwin