Jon Hotchkiss, 10/16/12

Creator, ThisvsThatShow.com

The airlines cater to their first class passengers who pay much more for their tickets than do the passengers in steerage and the airline is convinced that 1st class passengers want to board first, so they won't do anything that will upset these valuable customers.

Matthew Chapman, 10/16/12

Writer, director, "The Ledge"

Everything in life has a scientific component. Virtually none of the questions asked by moderators have contained a scientific component. Be a hero: ask these questions for your country and the world!

James A. Shapiro, 10/16/12

Author, 'Evolution: A View from the 21st Century'; Professor of Microbiology, University of Chicago

In the early 1980s, I was fortunate to observe that lab strain E. coli colonies are organized structures displaying spatially differentiated expression of their genomes. Each colony was a flower. This observation immediately told me that the bacteria grew as interactive populations capable of coordinating their activities.

David Ropeik, 10/16/12

Author, 'How Risky Is It, Really?'

What a fantastic demonstration of the animal wiring of the human brain when it comes to fear. What a thrill! For Felix, sure, but for us too.

Nigel Barber, 10/16/12

Biopsychologist; Blogger, Psychology Today's 'The Human Beast'

If all religious people believed as little as Einstein, religion would soon go out of business.

William G. Gilroy, 10/16/12

Assistant director of public relations, University of Notre Dame

For anyone who has ever struggled while attempting to solve a Sudoku puzzle, University of Notre Dame researcher Zoltan Toroczkai and Notre Dame postdoctoral researcher Maria Ercsey-Ravaz are coming to the rescue.

John A. Long, 10/15/12

VP, research and collections, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

All life depends upon sex to survive. Straining down my microscope, I experienced one of the most sublime eureka moments of my career. Our discovery had just defined the oldest known act of sexual intimacy.

Madeline Schwartzman, 10/09/12

Author, 'See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception'

Anthony Youn, M.D., FACS, 10/15/12

Plastic Surgeon; Author, 'In Stitches'

In the next 10 years, I suspect that today's 'extreme plastic surgery' treatments will seem like run-of-the-mill procedures. The future is likely to bring us astonishingly advanced, and increasingly unusual ways to enhance our bodies.

Paul Raeburn, 10/15/12

Author, 'Do Fathers Matter? The New Science of Fatherhood'

I have no quibble with others' religious beliefs. Those who choose to accept Eben Alexander's interpretation of his experiences are welcome to do so, as far as I'm concerned. There is nothing scientific about Alexander's claims or his"proof."

Dr. Chris Martine, 10/15/12

Director, Manning Herbarium at Bucknell University

Shining brightly on the screen were images of whole tree leaves being peeled from the surfaces of 15-million-year-old rocks. I did a double take. "Wait, the leaves, themselves, are 15 million years old? And you can hold them in your hands?"

Karl Giberson, Ph.D, 10/15/12

Karl Giberson teaches writing at Stonehill College

Evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell." They are not scientific theories supported by mountains of evidence, as scientists would have us believe. They are a part of Satan's plan to keep people "from understanding that they need a savior."

Joaquin M. Espinosa, 10/15/12

Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder

In order to succeed we will also have to radically change the way we practice medicine. Matching macroscopic symptoms with standardized drugs just won't do. Each cancer patient is a new scientific problem.

Matthew Hutson, 10/15/12

Science writer; author, 'The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking'

On Oct. 10 I attended a panel discussion at the New York Academy of Sciences titled "The Thinking Ape: The Enigma of Human Consciousness." The panel: David Chalmers, Daniel Kahneman, Laurie Santos, Nicholas Schiff, and Steve Paulson. I jotted down a few notes.

Jason Haraldsen, 10/15/12

Theoretical physicist; post-doctoral researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory

One does not have to look at a chart to notice that glaciers are melting and the ocean is rising. The areas that are actually debated by scientists are: the human factor and the earth's reaction mechanism.

Victor Stenger, 10/11/12

Physicist, Ph.D., bestselling author, author of 'God and the Folly of Faith'

The way to defeat ignorance is with evidence. After thousands of reported religious experiences of various kinds, including near-death-experiences, no one has ever provided a single item of verified new knowledge.

Wray Herbert, 10/12/12

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

We may debate civilly and settle our differences in the voting booth, but is it possible that physical prowess still shapes our positions on this fundamental social issue?