Question of the Week

This week's Question: A growing number of airlines, including Alaska Airlines, are giving pilots the option of using iPads in the cockpit. In a flight scenario, the iPad would take the place of the hefty manuals and training documents that the Federation Aviation Administration requires pilots to have on hand. Some pilots...

This week's Question: Last month, the White House announced the National Robotics Initiative, a major program to develop next-generation robots for manufacturing, healthcare, and other areas. The robotics community received the project with enthusiasm, but some observers expressed concern about...

This week's Question: Driven by a $30 million prize put up by Google, more  than two dozen teams have signed up for a competition to become the first  private venture to land on the Moon. That means spacecrafts could be heading out within a few years, and many entrepreneurs are developing possible ideas that could...

While Congress failed to repeal light bulb efficiency standards last week, many had been debating the importance of LED bulbs and compact fluorescents. Supporters of incandescents say that the light source is cheap compared to alternatives, and its quality is fairly good. Others argue that the...

Last week, Toshiba unveiled a glasses-free 3D laptop, the Qosmio F750. The screen displays 2D and 3D simultaneously in separate windows. The display uses a lenticular lens sheet, capable of sending slightly different images to the left and right eye separately, thus giving the user a sense of image depth. The computer has...

This week's Question: In a preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, a scientific panel concluded that ocean degeneration is happening much faster than previously predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing...

The White House announced last week that is was planning to forge ahead with "smart grid" plans for the United States. By increasing controls technology and digital information, the effort would potentially update the American electrical transmission system to provide real-time information about the state of...

This week's question addresses a robot and one of America's most well-known game shows. A supercomputer named Watson, designed by IBM and consisting of 90 IBM Power 750 Express servers, is set to face two human contestants on the US quiz show Jeopardy this...

This week's question looks at an announcement from scientists operating NASA's Kepler satellite, who reported this week that they had identified 1,235 possible planets orbiting other stars, potentially three times the previously recorded number. Although no Earth-like planet has been...

This week's Question of the Week focuses on Web 2.0 interaction. A recent report from the University of Texas, Austin, says that networking sites like Facebook make users more sociable and "afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community." A recent book by Sherry Turkle, "Alone...

This week's Question focuses on a new service from T-Mobile that, for just 4.99 a month, automatically disables rings and messages, and sends calls to voicemail when the phone is in a moving car. The services being tested and deployed are voluntary and can be overridden if a driver...

This week's question addresses last week's news that Verizon will soon sell the iPhone 4. Although some analysts say the move may double Apple's market share, many enterprises and financial institutions have held back on the mobile device due to concerns of its...

This week's Question of the Week concerns a new law in San Francisco, taking effect on Dec. 1 that bans restaurant toy giveaways unless the meals meet certain healthy standards for calories, sodium, and fat. Supporters say the move will offer better nutrition standards for children, while opponents say the...

This week's Question of the Week, a suggestion from INSIDER reader Glenn Barkley, concerns the Right to Repair Act, a bill that would require auto manufacturers to sell to non-dealer repair shops the complete repair information and diagnostic tools, currently only provided to dealer service centers....

This week's Question of the Week addresses another technical development from Google. In early October, the search giant announced that it has been testing robotic cars on U.S. city streets. The vehicles, equipped with a complex array of sensors and cameras that allowed them to steer around...

This week's Question of the Week addresses home foreclosures. Several major home lenders, including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, have suspended foreclosures in parts or all of the country because of sloppy paperwork and improper oversight of the many loans that went bad. Some say, absent...

This week's Question of the Week addresses Google TV. Engineers are putting the finishing touches on Google TV, a software platform that aims to bring the complete Internet experience to television sets. Expected in stores later this month, the Google TV device has a remote-control keyboard/pointing device...

This week's Question of the Week concerns a recent Gallup poll that revealed that a majority of Americans (57%) say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Sixty-three percent of respondents perceived bias. What do...

This week's Question of the Week focuses on the redesign of some Internet communication services. Law enforcement officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail...

This week's Question of the Week focuses on smartphones in the classroom. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recently suggested students should be allowed to use smartphones in the classroom, saying that the devices have a variety of helpful educational tools -- calendars, planners, and...

This week’s Question of the Week concerns 3D. The technology offers moviegoers and TV fans an enhanced viewing experience, and many recent 3D films, including Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, have had box office success. Several 3D movies, however, have...

This week's Question of the Week concerns a poll from Skyscanner, a travel fare-comparison Web site. To reduce noise and keep children in one place, sixty percent of more than 2,000 surveyed travelers said it would be a good idea for airplanes to have families-only sections on flights. What do you...

This week's Question of the Week concerns the issue of genetically engineered food. A firm in Waltham, MA, has developed a genetically modified salmon that grows during the winter as well as the summer, so it reaches an 8-pound market weight in 18 months instead of 36. Accomplished by inserting...

This week's Question of the Week concerns the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. According to recent news reports, BP said they may drill a new well in the Macondo reservoir -- the source of one of the world's worst oil spills. Proponents believe that BP's earnings from drilling in...

This week's Question of the Week concerns the battle between digital volumes and their printed counterparts. From Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad to Sony's e-Reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook, digital reading is obviously here to stay. This is especially true when...

This week's question concerns the recent story about the nearly 92,000 classified U.S. Military documents leaked by the Web site WikiLeaks.org. The organization's Web site claims, "We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government, and stronger...

This week's question concerns brain scans and the legal system. In 2008 a judge in India convicted a woman of murdering her fiancee based partly on brain scan evidence that gauged her ability to remember details of the crime. And in the US, fMRI scans have already found their way into courtrooms...

This week's question concerns the recent discovery of Russian spies still operating in the US. In June, authorities uncovered a Russian spy ring of 10 individuals operating in New York and Cambridge. Last week, the US and Russian governments completed a "spy swap" in Vienna. ...

This week's question concerns the world-renowned Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner - who helped to wipe out smallpox - and his prediction that humans will probably be extinct within 100 years. His reasoning includes overpopulation, environmental destruction, and climate change. Fenner stated that homo...