It is time once again for the Edge Annual Question [6], a mind-bending and boundary-busting online convening of scientists, technologists, and other big thinkers all responding to a single question at the intersection of science and culture. From physicists to artists, cognitive psychologists to journalists, evolutionary biologists to maverick anthropologists, these are people who Edge founder, famed literary agent, and BB pal John Brockman describes as the "third culture (consisting) of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are."

This year, John asked: What do you consider the most interesting (scientific) news? What makes it important?" Nearly two hundred really smart people responded, including Steven Pinker [7], Nina Jablonski [8], Freeman Dyson [9], Stewart Brand [10], Marti Hearst [11], Philip Tetlock [12], Kevin Kelly [13], Lisa Feldman Barrett [14], Douglas Rushkoff [15], Lisa Randall [16], Alan Alda [17], Jared Diamond [18], Pamela McCorduck [19], and on and on.