Terry Gross

Writer Richard Lourie. His new book, Sakharov, is a biography of the Russian scientist, dissident and Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov. He's considered one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. Sakharov created Russia's H-bomb, but later confronted his country over issues of nuclear responsibility and human rights.

An expert in climate change research, Paul Mayewski led the National Science Foundation's Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2. The project extracted ice cores chronicling 100,000 years of climate history. Mayewski, with co-author Frank White, writes about their expeditions in the new book, The Ice Chronicles: The Quest to Understand Global Climate Change (University Press of New England). Mayewski is also co-director of the Institute of Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University of Maine.

Science fiction writer Sheri S. Tepper is the author of over a dozen novels including, The Fresco, The Family Tree, Grass and her newest, The Visitor. (Harper Collins).