2019 Terrapin Science

[a bird]

I'm interested to hear what people thought of the science in this set. I had a few different goals with the science in this set, and I know I didn't meet all of them. One goal was to keep the science accessible. I know this led to some of the science tossups being slightly easier than expected. I don't think this is terrible, and I also don't think all the tossups in a given category need to be of comparable difficulty; including a few harder answerlines can keep players 'honest.'

I intended the physics and biology to follow a roughly standard distribution. (I did try to make sure sub topics like ecology were appropriately represented.) With chemistry on the other hand, I wanted to include less orgo than usual. I also wanted to make sure the orgo was fairly curricular (i.e. things you would learn in orgo I and II) and not driven by past questions. Specifically, I didn't want to include a lot of name reactions. Instead, I tried to write about things like materials science, applied chem, and chemical thermo. I'll stand by my goal of not asking about name reactions*, but I'm not entirely happy with some of the questions I wrote to fill the void. I'll also note that I prefer asking about applied chem to cutting the chem distribution to make room for other topics.

*I can elaborate on my reasoning, and my big picture thoughts on the chem distribution.

I have some big picture thoughts on the other science category that I can share if others are interested (e.g. justification for the engineering questions we included in this set).

edit: changed name to "2019 Terrapin Science"

[Amizda Calyx]

I've heard from a few people that the math and physics were really good, and I enjoyed a lot of the bio and chem. Something I did notice was the bio TUs were sometimes really easy, and there were occasional pockets of apyramidality.
• stomach TU: CCK and MALT are way more well-known than watermelon stomach/GAVE.
• enzymes TU: ping pong mechanism is quizbowl famous for some reason and shouldn't be in the second line.
• translation TU: release factors should definitely not be in power, let alone in the second line.
• A. thaliana TU: trichome formation is also an important event in Drosophila development (mediated through the alarmingly-named shavenbaby). I don't remember the clue so I'm uncertain if a particular gene was mentioned, but trichomes also definitely aren't specific to just Arabadopsis in plants, either.
• fluorescence TU: I can't remember the wording of the clues, but it was really disorienting (for me) to hear very common examples of fluorescent dyes mentioned super early in the question. The fluorescence mechanism of PI isn't notable or at all inherent to its use, so asking for a process performed by this standard dye will lead a lot of players to assume the answerline is one of its functions or a property more relevant to what it's used for (its cell impermeability for instance). I think this would be akin to naming a semi-popular sorting algorithm used for several distinct operations in the first line of a tossup on sorting: players will probably think "hmm what problems does this sorting algorithm help solve" rather than figuring out that it's just asking for sorting.

• HIV bonus: the AZT description sounded pretty standard for several NRTIs, although I'd have to hear the specific clues to be sure.
• calcitonin bonus?: I'm not sure if this is the right bonus, but at some point there was a clue stating that gastrin stimulates secretion of [answerline]. Gastrin stimulates a lot of things.

Non-bio:
There were a lot of chem questions that asked for a particular element.

[a bird]

I think the points in Joell's post are very fair. I'll definitely look at advanced stats for the questions listed and try make things pyramidal. Re: difficulty, I wasn't too worried about having second or third lines that many strong players could buzz on. I'm not really convinced the ping-pong mechanism is too easy for a second line (it hasn't really come up much in the last 4 years).

I ended up with a lot of element answer lines because I wanted to keep the topics accessible; e.g. writing about silicon was a good way to talk about semiconductors. With more time, I probably would have cut the nickel TU and moved the best clues into other questions.

Re: arabidopsis, here is the clue in question:

The GLH gene is required for trichome (“TRY-kohm”) development in this organism.

I didn't intend for this clue to imply trichome=arabidopsis, but rather to allude to arabidopsis development. I see how this clue could lead to some confusion.

[Sima Guang Hater]

• HIV bonus: the AZT description sounded pretty standard for several NRTIs, although I'd have to hear the specific clues to be sure.

Unfortunately they all kind of sound similar, but combivir is only zidovudine plus lamivudine. Also I don't think quizbowl is ready for bonus parts on other NRTIs.