Andy Borowitz is a comedian, actor and writer whose work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and at Newsweek.com. He is the first winner of the National Press Club's humor award and has won seven Dot-Comedy Awards for his website, borowitzreport.com. read more

Paul Hoffman is the author of a memoir called King's Gambit and two biographies, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and Wings of Madness. Formerly the publisher of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the long-time editor in chief of Discover magazine, Paul has performed mathematical paper-folding tricks on David Letterman and strapped Oprah into a virtual hang-glider while she accused him of ogling her butt. read more

At Duke University, neurobiologist Erich Jarvis leads a team that studies the abilities of songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds to learn new sounds and pass along a vocal repertoire in to the next generation. read more

Leon Lederman is the Pritzker Professor of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and the Director Emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988. He is the author of several books, including The God Particle, and Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe. read more

Paul Nurse is a Nobel Laureate and the President of Rockefeller University, where he continues to do research in cell biology. He is the former Chief Executive of Cancer Research, UK. In 1999 he was knighted in Great Britain for his contributions to cancer research. read more

Irene Pepperberg is Adjunct Associate Professor at Brandeis University and Research Associate and Lecturer at Harvard. She has studied the cognitive and communicative ability of Grey parrots for over two decades. Her book, Alex and Me, a description of life with her famous subject, became a New York Times bestseller. read more