In 2005 Anna and Terese started working together on a joint master thesis in industrial design after four and a half years studying at LTH, the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University in Sweden. The law that had just been introduced in Sweden making bicycle helmets compulsory for children up to the age of 15 had triggered a heated debate on whether it should be extended to include adult cyclists too. To people like us, who wouldn’t be seen dead in a polystyrene helmet, the thought that we might be forced to wear one by law was cause for concern. Producing a bicycle helmet that people would be happy to put on looked like a much better way to go than legislation forcing people to wear one or else. We realised that our industrial design master thesis was the perfect place to find out whether the traditional bicycle helmet could be improved on.

We started out with a survey, asking people on the streets why so few people wear bicycle helmets. They came up with plenty of reasons: “They’re a pain to carry about, they all look hideous, they ruin your hair, nobody else wears them, you can’t get your hat on underneath.” Some good arguments, it’s true, others more like excuses. It was clear that bicycle helmets are a hot topic that everyone has an opinion on and strong feelings about. Bicycling is something we do every day and there’s a sense of freedom that goes with it. Although people are well aware of the risks on the roads, the vast majority are choosing to bicycle without a helmet. When it comes down to it, people do really want to protect their heads in road accidents, but there are limits. It isn’t the bicyclists who need to change, it’s the product.

Moises is a journalist and author of An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases, published by Scribner. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and Slate, among other publications.

He became interested in autoimmune and allergic disease because he suffers from both—lifelong asthma and food allergies, and an autoimmune disorder called alopecia areata universalis. He’s been mostly hairless since his early teenage years.

As a budding science journalist, he began asking why – what caused these disorders. Most answers impugned genetics, stress or pollution. These were deeply unsatisfactory explanations. But one day discovered a totally different answer to the question. Perhaps it’s not what we now encounter that causes problems. Maybe it’s what we’ve lost that has spurred new problems to emerge.

Velasquez-Manoff followed that trail of crumbs. It led him to a rapidly accreting body of science that, together, comprises an ongoing revolution in our understanding of our own bodies. In his book, published in September 2012, he attempts to detail this rapidly developing field.

Velasquez-Manoff was born in New York City, raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and educated in Santa Cruz, California. He did many things before turning to journalism, including waiting tables, bartending, and graphic design. He holds a Master of Arts from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Tim have instigated research, commissioned, written and published highly cited reports on the economic potential of nanotechnologies and life sciences at Cientifica, the World Economic Forum and World Gold Council. His work has been used by governments and public policy organisations, the financial sector and international business in setting, defining and measuring effectiveness of R&D programs, technology policy and innovation strategy.

Tim is recognized as a leading expert in the economics and commercialization of nano- and other emerging technologies, and a respected science and technology communicator.

Joe is currently working towards his MS in Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU (Expected May 2014). At the age of 17, Joe invented VETI-GEL, a gel that can instantly stop traumatic bleeding without the need to apply pressure, and founded Suneris, Inc. with his business partner, Isaac Miller, to commercialize it. Since then, Joe has been extremely active in the New York City entrepreneurial community, teaching classes to students wanting to start their own companies and giving lectures on the subject of technology and entrepreneurship. Joe also founded Entreprenaction, an organization tasked with giving young entrepreneurs the resources they need to bring their ideas to life. Joe was named a 2013 Goldwater Scholar for excellence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

After these life-altering experiences, she finally discovered that she had been born to em-Power the world.  She has been doing so through projects like MiMamaMe; a community offering free training and guidance to unemployed moms wanting to become self-employed through micro-businesses. Now she is on a mission to transform the world into a giant CIRCUS and has started Revoluti-ON, a project searching to bring non-stop-much-needed motivation, inspiration and empowerment through weekly interviews to ordinary Spanish people doing remarkable things.