Today's Question Category Archive: Science/Technology

Is going back to the moon a good idea?

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 29, 2009 by Eric Ringham (14 Comments)
Filed under: Science/Technology

NASA on Wednesday test-launched a rocket that one day may carry astronauts to the moon, which humans last visited in 1972. Is going back to the moon a good idea?

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Will you and your family get the H1N1 vaccine?

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 12, 2009 by Eric Ringham (48 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Science/Technology

A recent poll reported that more than a third of parents would decline to have their children immunized against the H1N1 flu. Their reasons included a fear of side effects and skepticism about the flu's severity. Will you and your family get the H1N1 vaccine?

Comments texted to MPR:

I'll get vaccinated when vaccine makers are made legally responsible for the deaths they cause. -A. Kimball, Fergus Falls, MN

We will all be vaccinated as it is the right thing to do. -Lindsey

Been getting seasonal flu shots for 13 yrs; my kids for the last 5. Only got sick the years I didn't get a shot, so I plan on getting both. -Jeremy, Shakopee, MN

As a nurse midwife, i feel that it is my responsibility to be vaccinated in order to protect my patients, my family and myself. I am also a temporary single mom due to my husband currently being deployed to Iraq; i will vaccinate my daughter largely out of work absentee concerns. If she is ill, i am the only person to take care of her. That trickles down and impacts everything at my workplace. -Jen, St. Cloud, MN

I will not. Every year people get flu vaccinations. Every year a new flu virus appears. The one year i was vaccinated, because it was free, i got the flu. -Tammy, Minneapolis, MN

My partner and I do not get vaccines unless required to for travel. We boost our immunities by eating well and taking dietary supplements. -Andy, Minneapolis, MN

Yes we will get the flue shot. We will get all the flu shots. -Tim Brandon, Minneapolis, MN

I'll be happy to get an H1N1 shot if the pandemic hasn't killed me by the time the vaccine becomes available. -anonymous text message

Share your reply in the comments: Will you and your family get the H1N1 vaccine?

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How careful are you to protect your identity online?

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 9, 2009 by Eric Ringham (1 Comments)
Filed under: Science/Technology, Security

The FBI is making arrests in a fraud case that allegedly involved tricking people into revealing their Internet passwords or other information. And in recent weeks, tens of thousands of apparently stolen passwords or addresses have been posted on the Web. How careful are you to protect your identity online?

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What part of your life has the greatest impact on your health?

Posted at 6:00 AM on October 7, 2009 by Eric Ringham (14 Comments)
Filed under: Environment/Energy, Health, Science/Technology

A series concluding today on All Things Considered examines the "social determinants" that affect health - factors like income, neighborhood and education. What part of your life has the greatest impact on your health?

My jobs in personal training, massage therapy, and yoga instruction. If i didn't do these daily for work, i wouldn't do them on my own, likely. So my work, and the knowledge that comes with them, keeps me going! -Julie, Howard Lake, MN

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When is texting inappropriate?

Posted at 6:00 AM on September 30, 2009 by Eric Ringham (21 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Science/Technology

You've probably never sent a text message from a church pew, or while driving, or during a lecture in class. But you've seen people do that and more. When is texting inappropriate?

Whenever your attention is respectfully required by others (i.e. While at church, when driving, etc.) -anonymous text message

Texting is inappropriate when driving mainly because it is illegal, but at any other time it is just a extension of your freedom of speech. -Pat, Maplewood, MN

Texting in church! The best use of an otherwise wasted hour. -Jim, Saint Paul, MN

Texting is efficient and important best to do when not talking to another or driving. -Jeff, St. Cloud, MN

Texting is just a tool, and is only inappropriate where inattention of any sort is rude or dangerous. Used appropriately, texting is a great resource! -anonymous text message

Texting, with other new social networking tools, are eroding in-person communication skills to efficient technophiles living through avatars. -anonymous text message

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Could a gory video make you a better driver?

Posted at 6:00 AM on September 3, 2009 by Eric Ringham (22 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Science/Technology, Transportation

A British public-service video offers a graphic depiction of a car accident involving teen-agers who text while driving. The video has spread quickly around the Web, but it's unclear whether the gruesome images will actually change anyone's behavior. Could a gory video make you a better driver?

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How likely is it that aliens exist somewhere in the universe?

Posted at 6:00 AM on September 1, 2009 by Eric Ringham (18 Comments)
Filed under: Science/Technology

A new NASA mission is searching for earthlike planets, and some scientists think the mission will reveal important clues about the potential for advanced civilizations. How likely is it that aliens exist somewhere in the universe?

The greatest evidence that there IS intelligent life outside our solar system is that none of it has bothered to contact us. -anonymous text message

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What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?

Posted at 6:00 AM on August 11, 2009 by Anna Weggel (48 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Science/Technology

Last year, the Polaroid company announced it would stop selling its cameras and producing instant film. Now that stores have sold their stocks, the price of a packet of Polaroid film is through the roof. Rapid changes in technology make it hard to keep up with the latest gadget, and even harder to let go of the ones we love. What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?

I refuse to give up pencils. -Cat, Plymouth, MN

I refuse to give up my turn table and vinyls. Purple Rain just isn't the same crammed into an iPod -Phillip R. Minneapolis, MN

My pressure canner and clothes line. -Jason

I refuse to give up my paper daytimer calendar. -Linda Sorensen, Oronoco, MN

Low tech device I refuse to give up? That's easy. My turntable and vinyl records. -Adam Thurston

I just seem to not be able to loosen my grip on my original Nintendo system. I don't use it, it's just there, much to the chagrin of my fiance. -anonymous text message

Definitely my VCR! -Miranda, St. Paul, MN

I refuse to give up flush toilets. -Reid, Duluth, MN

My corded phone. -Jane Fisher, St. Paul, MN

I wont give up my books or newspaper. Can't curl up on the couch with my blanky and my computer! -anonymous text message

Share your reply in the comments: What low-tech device do you refuse to give up?

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What is the moonshot for our times?

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 16, 2009 by Eric Ringham (11 Comments)
Filed under: Environment/Energy, Politics/Government, Science/Technology

Forty years ago today, three U.S. astronauts were launched into space on the Apollo 11 mission, which put a human being on the moon for the first time. It was a moment when the nation seemed united behind a common, innovative goal. Members of the Obama administration have suggested that we need that kind of approach to energy policy. What's your suggestion? What is the moonshot for our times?

The moonshot didn't just unite our country, it united the world. The most recent such experience, I fear, was 9/11. On that occasion I e-mailed to a friend that this event would herald a new era of civility in America. And I was right. For about two weeks. -Fred Marx, Minneapolis, MN

First, find a better name. The sixties moonshot gave the nation a common purpose but most of us were only spectators. Today we need a common goal which requires participation of everyone. I think the "Giant Leap for Mankind" in our day should be to create an internet database where inventors and thinkers could publish their technological ideas, to be shared as quickly as possible, so that we could have ever more minds working to push technology forward. Prize money and recognition should be awarded to those who contribute the best ideas. The database would keep track of who was first with particular ideas. -Thomas Johnson, Virginia, MN

We really don't have one, we instead need to fix our infrastructure which is falling apart; create a single payer health care system and come to grips with global warming. This is much more significant than ANYTHING we do in space. -Robert Keegan, Coon Rapids, MN

So far, we don't have one. It should be to fund the research to develop technology and renewable, sustainable sources of energy to replace fossil fuel. We should be leading the way for the rest of the world. -Sharon Grimes, Minnetonka, MN

Better health care than Taiwan for as little money per capita. How ever will we, and our workers, compete with the top 20 economies of the world saddled by health care costs two or three times higher than the competition. The parasites who have gotten rich off the suffering of the American people must be cast off and we must embrace the lessons learned and applied around the world. We need only the common sense and the humility to move forward. -Harv Doucette, Brainerd, MN

Share your reply in the comments: What is the moonshot for our times?

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If you could travel through time, where would you go?

Posted at 6:00 AM on July 9, 2009 by Eric Ringham (46 Comments)
Filed under: Science/Technology, Transportation

Time travel might seem like a fantasy, but some scientists think it could become a reality. One of them, the physicist Ronald Mallett, has developed a theory of how to build a time machine. He says his idea works by using "light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time," and he's getting attention from news media and filmmaker Spike Lee. If you could travel through time, where would you go?

I would like to go to the future to see how we're doing with things like: global warming, technology, a cure for some of our diseases (like diabetes and cancer) and world relations. -Mike Lang

I would go back and spend more time and get to know my grandparents better. -Kristine, Minneapolis

I would go back to the mid 70s, and do a better job with my post high school years. -Karen Anderson, Superior, WI

I would time travel into the early years of America and try to free slaves and break down color, race, gender, and sexuality barriers. -Jake, Northfield, MN

18 September 1970, just before MTC took over Twin City Lines, to collect bus schedules and bus-related documents and bring them back to the present day. -John Charles Wilson, Minneapolis, MN

I would go fishing with Hemingway and drinks some good Spanish wine. -Joel

I would return to Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963 and stop the Kennedy assassination. I believe that if he was to remain president the civil rights movement would have been less painful of a process for our country and a Kennedy presidency would have averted our involvement in the Vietnam war. Of course, as any science fiction fan knows, altering time always has unintended consequences so who knows what might actually happen. -Brian Roth, Eagan, MN

If I can make only one choice, then Jerusalem 31C.E., of course. Being a Christian, I would suppose most others would choose the same. If I could choose more, then Philadelphia June 1776. London 1615. Washington DC April 1865. Venice 1492. Singapore 1936. New York City 1945. I could easily go on. -Jared Hoke, Marine on St. Croix, MN

I don't know. The questions that I have often wondered when considering this question are. Can you go back and forward or only backward? If you can only go backward in time because the future has not happened yet, when you get to the past can you come back because from that point the future has not happened yet? If we could time travel I suppose I would go back to frontier times to learn more about the environment around us that we take for granted. -Jeremy Gray, Minneapolis, MN

I would like to go to July 2,1776 - signing of the declaration. -James Redfield, Rush City, MN

Late 1700's - Beethoven, Mozart, etc. -Sue, Brooklyn Park, MN

Love to see my dad and grandfather again. -@cbs3890

Share your reply in the comments: If you could travel through time, where would you go?

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