Illah Nourbakhsh

Director of the CREATE Lab and Head of the Robotics Master's Program at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute

Whether we enter a robot utopia, a robot smog or somewhere in between, we will close the gap between robotically aware and organically alive. Do we create new life forms, as Jansens suggests of his progeny?

Rebecca Certner

PhD candidate, Northeastern University

If one manages to look beyond the incendiary swashbuckling and dragon hatchlings perched atop naked women, it becomes apparent that Game of Thrones is chock full of science.

Foz Meadows

Author, blogger, bipedal mammal with delusions of immortality and carbon-based lifeform extraordinaire.

If and when sentient AI becomes reality, will it, too, have the capacity to both anthropomorphize and dehumanize other beings in relation to itself? And if it did, would we view it as more or less human depending on which skill it used to refine its opinion of humanity?

Gayle Cotton

Author, 'Say Anything to Anyone Anywhere: 5 Keys to Successful Cross-Cultural Communication'

People from every culture, including various country leaders and several U.S. presidents, have been guilty of unintentionally offending people from different cultures through the use of inappropriate gestures.

Bridget Conneely

Zoologist

April Brucker

Actress, Ventriloquist

I am a singing telegram delivery girl. When I tell people about my occupation I get one of two questions. The first is, "Do they still have those?" The answer is yes.

Diane Dimond

Television journalist, author, syndicated columnist

Anyone out there live in a haunted house? It might seem like a silly question, but as home sales pick up you should know there are laws against selling a house without full disclosure.

Dave Pruett

Former NASA researcher; computational scientist; emeritus professor of mathematics, James Madison University; author, 'Reason and Wonder'

The mind may be localized to the brain. Then again, it may not. Study the brain long enough it is presumed, and we will eventually understand mind. But a lot of evidence -- anecdotal and scientific -- suggests otherwise.

James Koole

Accomplished pessimist, marathon runner and dad

If he says he held his breath underwater for 17 minutes and four seconds, and that he did it through intense training and a deep understanding of the physiology of his own body, then that should be good enough. I should take him at his word. I want to believe.

Richard Schiffman

Journalist

The memo in question is only one small piece of a mounting body of evidence that UFOs are real. There is a large and growing movement of grass roots organizations that want the government to come clean about their secret files on UFO and publicly announce that UFOs and space aliens really do exist.

Thrillist

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Ever wondered what would happen if you tried to drink 25 milkshakes?

David Blaine

Illusionist

Learning to hold my breath for 17 minutes was an exciting challenge, but here, there was no block of ice, or coffin lid, or even a deck of cards separating me from the crowd.

Stuart Claxton

Marketing Director, Guinness World Records

The beauty and lure of breaking a world record is the fact that once a mark is surpassed you are in unexplored territory and that is what Guinness World Records has celebrated for so many years.

John Berardi, Ph.D.

Founder, Precision Nutrition

Of course, you may never want to make your body bigger, smaller, and then bigger again. You may never want to hold your breath for 17 minutes. And you may never want to run through a forest fire.

Roger Covin, Ph.D

Psychologist, Author of "The Need to be Liked"

When we retrain the body and mind to make uncomfortable physical sensations more acceptable, the outcomes can be remarkable.

Lisa Shufro

TEDMED's managing editor and producer

I pulled the card out from my pocket. It reminded me that famous or not, everyone gets scared when they risk failure -- even David Blaine.

Thom Nickels

Philadelphia-based author/journalist

Neighbors like to stand around and watch his baby gyrations: how he puts his hands to his mouth, squints in the sun, sucks his fingers or rubs his eyes before ruminating little streams of clear spring baby spittle all over his chin. Old timers call this "the mystique" of baby watching.