MIT's Technology Review takes the common list of new, young innovators and spins it on its head, listing instead "seven over 70."
"We meet extraordinary older innovators all the time, who after a lifetime of creativity are still solving big problems, generating wealth, or expanding our conception of what it means to be human," notes Tech Review's Jason Pontin. He adds that he chose the seven people on his list because he likes "their lives, work, and character."
And included are George Whitesides from Harvard who co-founded dozens of companies and invented cheap microfluidic chips and Institute of Systems Biology's Leroy Hood who invented a number of tools, most notably the automated DNA sequencer. Also on the list is Stewart Brand, the president of the Long Now Foundation, who is working on bringing extinct species back to life.
The magazine didn't though, do away with its list of up-and-comers. Its newest crop of innovators under 35 is also up, here.
That list includes Lina Nilsson, the founder of Tekla Labs, which designs cheaper lab gear for labs with low funds, Counsyl's Balaji Srinivasan, whose company screens prospective parents for genetic disorders, and the Broad Institute's Feng Zhang, who is interesting in understanding the genetic roots of mental disorders and trying to fix them. Also on the list is BGI-Shenzen's Bowen Zhao who is searching for the genetic basis of intelligence.