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The clacking on the keyboard from the other side of the divider abruptly halted, and Cynthia Scott, my office mate, sent over a missile. “Do you think the nuclear test in North Korea set off the earthquake in Hawaii?”

“What a great question!” I lobbed back, suddenly grasping that the two events occurred only days apart and could possibly be connected.

“I think I’ll type it into the ‘greatest question’ box,” she announced.

In late September, the University of Minnesota launched its “Driven to Discover” campaign to demonstrate the ways U experts are researching the questions that plague us or that simply make us wonder. At www.discover.umn.edu, visitors may click on a box and type in the query they most want answered. Once a week, University experts post a reply to one of the more popular or pressing questions, explaining the progress U research has made—such as in the search for a cure for Alzheimer’s—and where they expect their work to lead. It’s like a Magic 8 Ball but with more satisfying answers than, “Ask again later.”

“I won’t think you’re stupid if you ask a question,” my high school French teacher cajoled her slack-tongued, self-conscious students. “I’ll think you’re stupid if you don’t ask a question.” Still, we ninth-graders hesitated to raise our hands, certain that by opening our mouths we’d prove her theorem flawed—and look stupid in the process. Twenty-five years later, I couldn’t help but wonder what Madame would think of some of the doozies people had posted when I visited the “Driven to Discover” site myself. Who in the world were these people who had time to lollygag about, distracting busy researchers with their silly questions? Here’s a sampling:

Does it help your orchid to bloom if you sing to it? Can we be too connected by technology? What does it mean to be a woman? How tall can the tallest human grow? Why does love hurt? What is the difference between finding your bliss and being obsessed? What would happen to our society if celebrity and teacher salaries were reversed? Do animals have a concept of what death is? What would happen if we all stopped beating around the bush and just told it like it is? Why is skateboarding so misunderstood? Is it good or bad to clean the wax out of your ear? Does fish excrement contain E. coli? Which way is “up”? Is ignorance really bliss?

. . . Well, maybe a few of those questions do have substance, I conceded (who wouldn’t want to know definitively about ear wax?). Yeah, I could begin to see the value in solving several of those mysteries (I do worry we’re replacing human contact with so many technogadgets). OK, OK, almost all of those questions I initially scoffed at—including those likely posted in fun—seem to touch on something vital to our existence: maintaining health and well-being; understanding social structures and behavior; comprehending physical and mental/emotional connections; pushing the boundaries of our knowledge. And, of course, subduing skateboarders.

My own great questions began bubbling up. Does constantly changing lanes on the interstate really get you there faster? Is it safe to eat a pretzel dropped on the kitchen floor if you snatch it up within 10 seconds? Why does political power swing like a pendulum?

I remember something another teacher once told my class. “The first step to finding the answer,” he said, “is articulating the question.”

Shelly Fling can be reached at fling003@umn.edu.