Mike Ferguson takes to the podium on “Jeopardy!”

When Mike Ferguson, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Central Oklahoma and member of the American Chemical Society, got a call last April to see if he wanted to be on Jeopardy!, his immediate response was, “Hell yes!”

Ferguson and his wife have been playing trivia regularly for 14 years—ever since their second date. With thousands of those games under his belt, Ferguson felt pretty confident in taking the test required to get on the famous quiz show. The first test, which can be taken online, is made up of 50 questions on over 50 topics; aspiring contestants have to answer them within 15 min, typing their responses. Ferguson had waited for over a year from the time of taking that test to the April call confirming that he had secured a spot to go against the best of the best on the Jeopardy! stage.

At the end of May, Ferguson took his place for the recording of his show—which aired July 12, 2024—wearing a milli mole pin. “I was trying to spread the message that chemistry is cool,” he says.

When a question about the elements representing NPK in the rating system for fertilizer, Ferguson was able to give the correct response (in the form of a question, of course): “What is nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium?” Ferguson, who was teaching a general chemistry laboratory the spring semester before he appeared on the show, says, “In my lab I teach the students that nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium help the plants grow up, down, and all around.”

When the contestants got a chance to tell the audience a bit about themselves, Ferguson recalled that his lessons in chemistry helped save the life of the dog of one of his students. When the dog accidentally consumed rat poisoning on a vacation, his student tried to feed it hydrogen peroxide to force it to vomit. When that didn’t work, they remembered Ferguson teaching how H₂O₂ breaks down into water and oxygen. They hurried to get some fresh hydrogen peroxide and were able to revive the pet. “Sometimes the really important lessons aren’t on the test,” Ferguson says.

On the set of Jeopardy! when Ferguson wasn’t hitting his buzzer to answer questions, he was spreading his love for chemistry by distributing spare change. Ferguson, who often performs chemistry magic shows, brought copper pennies he turned into “gold” to pass out to people backstage. He puts shiny copper pennies in a sodium hydroxide and granulated zinc solution that when heated up makes the coins look silver. When the pennies are heated a second time, the zinc melts into the copper, making brass.

Though his game was very close, Ferguson didn’t win. But to his surprise, he got a call in October to ask if he would like to return for the Second Chance Competition, in which players who had tight matches are invited to try again. Ferguson went back to Los Angeles to record the show Nov. 4, and his final episode aired on New Year’s Eve. It ended with him heading home unvictorious. No one answered the final question correctly, but a fellow contestant ended up with a better score and made it to the finals.

Trivia Questions:

What chemical sets your taste buds ablaze when eating a chili?

Answer: What is capsaicin?

Unlike the nobility who were a part of the ruling class, the noble gases belong to which group of the periodic table?

Answer: What is Group 18?

Which of these elements is named after a person instead of a place? Californium, Berkelium, Seaborgium, or Polonium?

Answer: What is seaborgium?