Have you ever stared into the night sky, full of stars and planets? As a kid, Neil deGrasse Tyson was star-struck when he first visited a planetarium. The universe was calling him. Tyson pursued his interest in astronomy and studied to be an astrophysicist. In 1996, he became the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium. He is passionate about teaching people about the universe. Known for making science fun and easy to understand, he has hosted and...

Have you ever wished you could use technology to improve people's lives? Ever since he was a teenager, Sebastian Thrun wanted to build machines that helped people. So far, Thrun has developed robots that can be tour guides and nurses and can help save miners trapped underground. In 2004, he won a US Department of Defense contest by building a car that could drive itself. Since then, the self-driving cars he developed have been tested on more than...

Have you ever watched a home video that went viral on the Internet? Then you've probably heard of the company YouTube. YouTube was created by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim in 2005. When these three friends wanted to share a video from a party, they realized they were on to something. They thought other people would want an easy way to share videos online too. The website they built quickly became the most popular online video community...

Have you ever scrolled through a news feed on Facebook? Ruchi Sanghvi helped design this and other Facebook features. She joined Facebook-then a small Silicon Valley startup company-after moving from India to the United States to study computer engineering. With her help, Facebook quickly became one of the largest social networking sites in the world. Sanghvi was the first female engineer at Facebook, and it wasn't easy blazing a trail for women in...

Do you enjoy snapping photos or taking movies of your adventures? So does Nick Woodman-but when he was growing up, most of his activities weren't camera-safe. Woodman was a diehard surfer. He couldn't hold a camera-or keep it dry-while he was boarding. So many of his memorable moments went unrecorded. As an adult, Woodman set out to invent a camera that's easy to use anywhere. The result was GoPro-a company that builds sturdy, waterproof, wearable...

Have you ever wondered how the universe began? Growing up, Brian Greene's father taught him to think about the world in different ways. Greene was curious about how it all worked. He set out to find answers to big science questions. At Harvard University, Greene studied physics and was named a Rhodes Scholar, an honor only the most gifted students receive. He was fascinated by the new theories explaining the universe, but he wanted to share his fascination...

While watching Star Trek on television as a child, Mae Jemison was certain she would one day visit space. Then she became the first black female NASA astronaut. Find out how Jemison's passion for science led to her achievements.

Rachel Carson noticed that the pesticides farmers used on crops were harming animals. Her book Silent Spring led to the banning of several dangerous pesticides. Discover how Carson became one of the most influential environmentalists of the twentieth century.

When Diana Trujillo was little, working for NASA was her greatest dream. She loved to gaze at the stars in the sky. She also enjoyed math and art. Then she learned that engineers use math and art in their work. So Trujillo decided to be a NASA engineer. Although she didn't speak English, she was determined to live her dream. Trujillo believed in herself enough to move from Colombia to the United States to learn English. After years of hard work, she...

Do you play computer games? If you do, you've probably played Minecraft. When Minecraft creator Markus Persson was young, he wasn't very interested in the games themselves. He was more interested in the programing instructions in the computer's manual. By the time Persson was eight years old, he was writing code for his own computer games. When he was eighteen, Persson landed his dream job as a video game programmer. In 2009, he designed Minecraft...