Innovators

“It’s not unfair to say that we have been completely misled” by studying mostly museum-quality specimens, says O’Dea (gathering fossils in Bocas del Toro along Panama’s Caribbean coast).

Shell Fame

Paleobiologist Aaron O'Dea has made his name by sweating the small stuff

“The more race is not supposed to matter, the more it does,” says Packer (in her home office in Pacifica, California). “It’s one of the conundrums of living in America today.” She is currently working on a historical novel titled The Thousands, about the “forgotten masses of blacks who went West.”

Comedienne of Manners

Novelist ZZ Packer uses humor to point up some disconcerting signposts along America's racial divide

None

Signs of Life

Astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger analyzes light from distant stars for evidence we're not alone

None

Net Worker

Where are your friends in cyberspace? Closer than you might think, says Internet researcher Jon Kleinberg

None

Civil Wrongs

In a painstaking study of 1960s Atlanta, Kevin Kruse takes suburban whites to task

None

Keeper of the Keys

Pianist Jason Moran laces his strikingly original music with the soulful sounds of jazz greats

None

High Scorer

Composer Nico Muhly wowed them at Carnegie Hall and the New York Public Library

Bill Gates (in 2003) has "far surpassed anything I accomplished in engineering and business," says Jimmy Carter, now a fellow philanthropist.

35 Who Made a Difference: Bill Gates

The king of software takes on his biggest challenge yet

None

Making Copies

At first, nobody bought Chester Carlson's strange idea. But trillions of documents later, his invention is the biggest thing in printing since Gutenburg

None

Wise Guys

From absorbing shocks to shock absorbers

Page 20 of 20