"Science is made dramatic and relevant by the incredible people behind it," said Scott Mowbray, Editor-in-Chief, of Popular Science. "Our second annual list shines the spotlight on a group of men and women, while watched and admired by colleagues, is largely unknown to the public. These are the researchers who have the potential to redefine the world in which we live. And it's an incredibly diverse group, illustrating the global nature of advanced scientific research done in the United States."
The PopSci "Brilliant 10," in alphabetical order, are:
- Eric Demaine, 22, Massachusetts Insititute of Technology, for his work in the field of computational origami. At age 14 as a grad student, Delmaine was confronting a thorny problem: which shapes can be made simply by folding a piece of paper, as many times as you like, then snipping off a corner and unfolding it. He found the answer and helped launch computational origami, a hybrid discipline--part computer science, part mathematics--that explores complex geometry concepts inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding. This field has helped engineers figure out how to unfold a telescope lens in outer space without damaging it, among other things.
- Tejal Desai, 31, Boston University, for her work in the field of tissue engineering. For her PhD project, Desai built an implantable device that eliminates the daily insulin injections diabetics give themselves to control blood sugar levels. She's moved past that and is now working to build better artificial blood vessels. The existing variety cannot constrict or dilate as natural vessels do to control blood pressure. Desai's goal is to make artificial vessels that coax the patient's own body to grow replacements, then biodegrade, leaving the new natural vessels behind.
- Deborah Estrin, 43, University of California, Los Angeles, for her work in the field of embedded networks. When a tree falls in the forest, it always makes a sound. By seeding the woods with miniature monitoring devices, Estrin plans to make sure it will be heard. She wants to connect us to the physical world as intimately as the Internet connects us to one another. She is devising a system in which our surroundings will constantly take their own measure and report back.
- Xiahui Fan, 31, University of Arizona, Tuscon, for his work in the field of cosmology. As a teen, Fan used his Beijing high school's rooftop telescopes to search for comets and flickering variable stars. He just wanted to see far. Some 15 years later and half a globe away, he and his team have already discovered 10 of the oldest objects in the cosmos--one of which, sent its light our way nearly 13 billion years ago, a scant 800 million years after the big bang. His goal is to find the very first quasars.
- Michael Manga, 35, University of California, Berkley, for his work in the field of geophysics. Manga wants to understand planetary evolution, but he doesn't have a few million years to sit around and observe. So he and his colleagues have built a few Earths of their own and successfully compressed a billion-year phenomenon into an hour. Recently, Manga and a student disproved a long-held notion that when magma rises quickly and breaks into pieces, it causes an explosive volcanic eruption. He's advancing dozens of areas of geology.
- Betty Pace, 49, University of Texas, Dallas, for her work in the field of molecular medicine. In junior high, Pace lost a good friend to sickle-cell anemia. Right then, she decided to spend her life trying to find a cure. Her approach sidesteps traditional gene therapy. Her work doesn't involve shoehorning new DNA into cells, but rather unlocking genetic on/off switches to fool the body into healing itself. Now she may be closing in.
- Stephen Quake, 34, California Insititue of Technology, for his work in the field of microfluidics. Quake is helping forge a new discipline: microfluidics--his chips have more than biological applications; they also work as computers. Recently, he unveiled a bit made of liquids. His new chips possess thousands more channels than their silicon forebears, and they keep getting smaller.
- Sarah Tishkoff, 37, University of Maryland, College Park, for her work in the field of molecular anthropology. Tishkoff realized how far she'd strayed from the scientific mainstream when she found herself processing blood samples in a centrifuge she'd hooked to the battery of her dusty Land Rover near a village in the Ngorongoro district of Tanzania. From the genes of living people, she divines the story of human origins.
- Victor Velculescu, 33, John Hopkins University, for his work in the field of genomics. Velculescu's maverick approach is ushering in a new way to finger cancer genes. Rather than identifying genes and then trying to figure out their role, he wanted to catch cancer genes in the act, and then identify them. He theorized that by paring RNA molecules to the bare minimum and linking those pieces together, he could rapidly characterize and count each one. His method, known as SAGE, worked--and 30 times faster than the old one
- Sae Woo Nam, 33, National Institute of Standards and Technology, for his work in the field of quantum cryptography. Scientists have long wanted to use photons to send secret keys, but until now the technology hasn't been precise enough. Enter Nam, who recently built the world's most sensitive photon detector. By interacting with the quantum world, his device could make coded messages uncrackable.
For a complete profile on each of the scientists and his or her research, please go to http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,472942,00.html.
The search for the Brilliant 10 was methodical: editors of Popular Science reached out to university department heads, academic think tanks, and award-giving organizations. "We searched for people who are causing a stir within their disciplines, the ones whose colleagues whisper about them with that special envy reserved for the halls of academe," said Features Editor Emily Laber Warren. "The focus is on brilliant work being done and the vision for the road ahead."
Popular Science® is published by Time4 Media®, the world's leading publisher of leisure-time magazines. Founded in 1872, PopSci is the world's largest science and technology magazine with a circulation of 1.45 million subscribers and a readership of more than seven million people. Time4 Media is a subsidiary of Time Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: AOL).