Dedicated to increasing awareness about Northern Indian Ocean blue whales, Asha de Vos is also committed to inspiring the next generation of marine biologists.

Dermatologist Richard Weller wants to know: Why are Scots so sick?

Most people are irritated by the buzzing of a fly's wings. But biologist Michael Dickinson views the sound with a deep sense of wonder.

Carin Bondar is an expert on the sexual life of animals -- and loves to tell their wild sex stories.

Do humans have pheromones? Tristram Wyatt is on the case. A researcher at Oxford, Wyatt is interested in the evolution of pheromones throughout the animal kingdom.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili and co-author Johnjoe McFadden, a biologist, explore the far edges of quantum biology in their book "Life on the Edge."

Auke Ijspeert works at the intersection of robotics, biology and computational neuroscience.

Simon Berrow is a marine biologist dedicated to studying and preserving the basking shark.

John Bohannon is a scientist and writer who runs the annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest.

Drew Berry creates stunning and scientifically accurate animations to illustrate how the molecules in our cell move and interact.

Rob Knight explores the unseen microbial world that exists literally right under our noses -- and everywhere else on (and in) our bodies.

Mohamed Hijri studies arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), seeking to understand the structure, evolution and reproduction of these organisms, which form a symbiotic relationship with plant roots.

Jonathan Eisen studies the ecology and evolution of microbial communities -- and their co-evolution with their hosts.

Heribert Watzke studies the brain in our gut -- and works to develop new kinds of food that will satisfy our bodies and minds.

Molly Stevens studies and creates new biomaterials that could be used to detect disease and repair bones and human tissue.

Heather Barnett creates art with slime mold -- a material used in diverse areas of scientific research, including biological computing, robotics and structural design.

Jaap de Roode studies the ecology and evolution of parasites, focusing on those that attack the monarch butterfly.

Sebastian Kraves wants to bring DNA science to more people in new places.

Geraldine Hamilton builds organs and body parts on a chip -- to test new, custom cures.

Brazilian-born biologist Juliana Machado Ferreira wants, simply, to save the world one bird at a time. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

Katie Hinde is studying breast milk’s status as the first superfood, providing babies with invaluable microbes custom-tailored to their individual needs, via an incredible and unlikely dialogue between the mother’s enzymes and the baby’s saliva.

Biodiversity warrior Cary Fowler wants to save the world from agricultural collapse, one seed at a time.

Using biological evolution as a template, Mark Pagel wonders how languages evolve.

Amy O'Toole is a 12-year-old student who helped run a science experiment inspired by Beau Lotto's participative science approach. At age 10 she became one of the youngest people ever to publish a peer-reviewed science paper.

Diane Kelly studies vertebrate anatomy, in particular the connection between the design and the function of reproductive organs.

Evolutionary ecologist Sara Lewis digs deep into firefly mating rituals to uncover a world of secret languages and strange gifts in these silent sparks.

Ed Yong blogs with a mission: to ignite excitement for science in everyone, regardless of their education or background.

B. N. Horowitz, MD is a cardiologist and visiting professor at Harvard University's department of human evolutionary biology who turns to the natural world for insights into human well being.

TED Fellow Rachel Armstrong is a sustainability innovator who creates new materials that possess some of the properties of living systems, and can be manipulated to "grow" architecture.

Nina Jablonski is author of Skin: A Natural History, a close look at human skin’s many remarkable traits: its colors, its sweatiness, the fact that we decorate it.