Bird’s Eye: Ah, but can you look at a bird’s eye and say which bird it is, given a choice of three? Your editor can’t; he scored a wretched 4/12, exactly as you’d expect an orangutang (or was that a chimp?) to score. He was more accurate at guessing what a world map of countries not using the metric system would look like, and knew most of the ten things he ought to about science. Good luck to you!

* Take Our Animal Eye Quiz The Guardian

* Map Of Countries Not Using The Metric System

Guess, before you look….

* The Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Science The Financial Times

Can you distinguish molecules from atoms? Genes from genomes? Do you know what makes an experiment statistically significant? If not, do you care? Are you embarrassed by your scientific ignorance – or almost proud of it?

Scientists have been complaining for decades that, while they would be ashamed to admit knowing nothing about Jane Austen’s novels, literary colleagues can get away with total ignorance of relativity and quantum theory. As Larry Summers noted on his installation as Harvard University president in 2001, students rarely admit to never having read a Shakespeare play but find it “acceptable not to know a gene from a chromosome or the meaning of exponential growth”.

…In this science issue of the FT Magazine we do our bit to fill the ignorance gap, by explaining the 10 key concepts that everyone needs to understand if they are not to feel an ignoramus when science comes up in conversation – and if they are to have a handle on important developments reported in the news. This selection is intended to encompass the mainstream fields of biology, physics and chemistry.