Science trivia where the footnote wins
Ask a room to name a bone in the human body and you get the femur, the skull and a rib. In Krillion those are the Obvious answers, worth the fewest points. The gem was the stapes, the stirrup-shaped bone in the middle ear and the smallest in the body. When the daily dive asked for a muscle, the gem sat right next to it: the stapedius, the tiny muscle that steadies the stapes.
This mode serves an endless run of science prompts: chemical elements and gases, planets, moons and constellations, bones, organs and hormones, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather, famous scientists, units of measurement and a lot of biology, from dinosaurs to animals that make their own light. 25 seconds a prompt, three lives, no daily limit.
Players on r/Krillion have asked for a science category, and the official themed packs don't have one yet, so this page gathers the science prompts from past daily dives plus prompts we write ourselves, such as the noble gases.
Tips for science prompts
- Go small. The rare answers hide in the tiny parts: ear bones, the stapedius, the hypothalamus (the gem for an organ of the human body, where brain, heart and lungs were Obvious).
- Use the far end of the periodic table. For a noble gas the gem was oganesson, element 118; for an element ending in "-ium" it was dysprosium, while calcium, helium and sodium were what most players typed.
- Look past the famous names. For a famous scientist, Einstein, Newton, Darwin and Curie were Obvious and the gem was Ibn al-Haytham, the 11th-century pioneer of optics.
- Space is bigger than the eight planets. Gonggong, a dwarf planet far beyond Neptune, was the gem for a planet or dwarf planet; for a moon it was Skathi, a small outer moon of Saturn.
- Watch the "too clever" trap. Pluto, Europa, the coccyx and the Big Dipper all feel like sneaky picks, and all were marked Too clever because so many players had the same idea.
Recent science prompts
From recent daily dives. Each links to its hints and answers.
- Name a part of a 2D or 3D shape (like a radius).#100
- Name a mammal smaller than a house cat#97
- Name a chemical element whose symbol is one letter#94
- Name a type of astronomical object found in space (like an asteroid)#92
- Name a metal (pure elements only; alloys like steel don't count)#88
- Name a type of living bird (general types; species names are grouped)#79
- Name a mammal or reptile that lives in rivers#68
- Name a chemical element whose name ends in -ium#68
- Name a disease that has a vaccine#67
- Name an animal that produces its own light#65
- Name a gas found in Earth's atmosphere#64
- Name a mammal that lives underground#61
FAQ
- Which science prompts come up?
- Chemistry (elements, gases, metals and alloys), space (planets, moons, constellations, missions and astronauts), the human body, earth science (rocks, minerals, clouds, weather), famous scientists and physicists, units and shapes, and biology: species of sharks, owls, spiders and trees, dinosaurs, nocturnal and venomous animals. New science prompts are added as they appear.
- Do I need scientific names?
- No. Species lists use common names such as angel shark or barn owl; a Latin name only works where it is the usual name, like Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping spider. Small typos, plurals and a leading "the" are forgiven, so you don't need perfect spelling for dysprosium either.
- Is this an official Krillion science pack?
- No. This is an independent fan-made game, not affiliated with krillion.io. Play the official game and its themed packs at krillion.io.