Ask An Engineer
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#32
Why is it cheaper to make new plastic bottles than to recycle old ones?
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#31
How do doctors detect cancer in the human body?
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#30
Will cars ever be able to drive themselves?
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#29
Why can’t I use a dimmer switch with a compact fluorescent bulb?
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#28
Why don’t we get cancer of the hair or the fingernails?
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#27
Can helicopters fly upside down?
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#26
Are nanoparticles harmful to the environment?
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#25
Can seawalls prevent beaches from eroding?
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#24
What happens to electricity when nothing is plugged into an outlet?
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#23
Why do plastics get brittle when they get cold?
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#22
Why do I have to take some medications every four hours but others only once a day?
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#21
Why hasn’t commercial air travel gotten any faster since the 1960s?
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#20
Why does traffic bottleneck on freeways for no apparent reason?
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#19
What makes nerve gas so dangerous?
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#18
Can we build a time machine?
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#17
How can solar cells become cost-effective enough to be commercially viable?
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#16
Why can’t machines — or humans — sniff out drugs or explosives as well as dogs?
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#15
Can hearts, livers, and kidneys be grown in the lab for human transplants?
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#14
Why does our hair turn gray — as opposed to green or some other color — as we age?
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#13
How does a random group of molecules form a thinking, breathing human?
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#12
Why do submarines move more like torpedoes than fish?
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#11
What are the chances that a large asteroid will collide with Earth—and will we see it coming?
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#10
What is the energy of gasoline compared to the same cost of other fuels in BTUs per dollar?
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#9
Can my Internet connection be “tapped” like a phone line?