Andrew Hessel, 2/16/12

Co-Chair, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, Singularity University.

Let's face it: there's a lot of biological engineering done in bedrooms. But do-it-yourself (DIY) biologist Cathal Garvey is taking it to a whole new level.

Wray Herbert, 2/14/12

Author, 'On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits'

A new and exhaustive study of online matchmakers -- and of romantic prediction in general -- raises real doubts about online dating services' methods and results. It questions the entire enterprise of predicting lasting love for any two people who have never met.

Allen Frances, 2/15/12

Professor Emeritus, Duke University

Will the unfavorable press result in a more favorable DSM 5 outcome? We must hope so, because so few other corrective options are available. DSM 5 remains steadfast and rigid in its support of really bad proposals with extremely dangerous unintended public health consequences.

Gary Marcus, 2/12/12

Author of Guitar Zero, and Professor of Psychology, NYU

When trying to learn a musical instrument, master a foreign language, or just study for an exam, the rate-limiting step is often memory. The faster you can convert new information into new memories, the faster you can master new skills.

James Dyson, 2/14/12

Inventor, Industrial designer

Simple observations can inspire leaps in understanding. In designing a vacuum that didn't choke on dust, I looked to a sawmill. I saw centrifugal force being used to separate dirt and wondered - could the same principle be used on a smaller scale?

Barron H. Lerner, 2/13/12

Prof. of Medicine, Columbia; Author

If an industry creates a product that is both dangerous and addictive and, ultimately, so unpleasurable that 85% of its customers want to quit, shouldn't society ban it? The cigarette cannot disappear quickly enough.

Susan Lieberman, Ph.D, 2/13/12

Director, International Policy, Pew Environment Group

According to the UN's most recent "State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture" report, 85 percent of fish stocks are "fully exploited, overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion" -- the highest ever recorded.

Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D., 2/10/12

Asst. Professor, University of Florida

It's time to get the legalization lobby out of the business of medical marijuana and instead focus our attention on scientists developing non-smoked marijuana-based medications for the truly ill. That would make this issue no longer the sick joke that it is today.

Bill Chameides, 2/10/12

Dean, Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment

Starting in about 2003, a slowdown in heat buildup was observed in the ocean while greenhouse gases continued to build up in the atmosphere, trapping more heat. Six years later Kevin Trenberth asked, where was the missing heat?

Marvin Meadors, 2/13/12

HuffPost User Realpolitic

Conservatives reject moral relativism where standards of right and wrong are thought to be mere products of time and culture, but what about the dangers of intellectual relativism where one believes what he wants to believe simply because it supports one's value structure?

Leslie Gerwin, 2/10/12

Associate director of Law and Public Affairs, Princeton University

The recent controversy over whether to research and publish data about a human transmissible H5N1 bird flu is disheartening to one who has spent a career advocating policies to promote and protect the public's health.

Mary Ann Rankin, 2/12/12

President and CEO, National Math and Science Initiative

The U.S. has fallen from first to fourth worldwide in the percentage of adults holding a college degree, at a time when analysts predict that sixty percent of the jobs in this country will require a higher degree by 2018.

Todd Hartley, 2/10/12

Columnist, screenwriter, playwright, lyricist, novelist, blogger and stand-up comedian

Based on my routinely exhibited ability to make grandiose statements that can't be proven wrong but for which I nevertheless have no proof, I've always thought I would make an excellent astrophysicist.

Carin Bondar, 2/10/12

Biologist, writer, and science communicator

Recently I was a guest on Urban Rush, a Vancouver-based talk show, to discuss one of my favorite topics: the weird and wonderful world of animal sex.

Jonathan D. Moreno, 2/9/12

Professor, University of Pennsylvania; Senior Fellow, CAP; Author, 'The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America'

Aldous Huxley's celebrated depiction of a deracinated future turns 80 this year. Perhaps no work in the genre infelicitously labeled science fiction has had so much influence or staying power.

Chris Mooney, 2/8/12

Author, 'The Republican War on Science' and 'The Republican Brain'

From global warming denial to claims about "death panels" to baseless fears about inflation, it often seems there are so many factually wrong claims on the political right that those who make them live in a different reality. Maybe they actually do.

Stanton Peele, 2/8/12

Addiction expert

Let's grant that we can reduce impulsivity to a single brain structure (which isn't itself true). Instead of saying this study provides evidence that addiction is inborn, it is equally true -- truer -- to say that it suggests that impulsivity and brain structure have no impact on addiction.