The 100 People Who Are Changing America

WHAT HE'S CHANGING:Can bacteria solve America's energy troubles? A few years ago, Keasling figured out how to insert genes from a wormwood plant into the DNA of a yeast cell, thus turning the microbe into a cheap factory for artemisinin, a key anti-malarial compound. Now head of the Joint BioEnergy Institute in California, Keasling and a team of 150 scientists are engineering bacteria to convert cornstalks and wheat chaff into synthetic hydrocarbon fuels that can power planes, trains and automobiles.

KEY QUOTE: "We don't have to accept what nature has given us."

SEE THE CHANGE: Keasling Lab

Photo: Courtesy of University of California, Berkeley

WHAT SHE'S CHANGING: The conscience of U.S. foreign policy. No one played a more important role than Power in forcing the human rights catastrophe of Darfur onto the front page. A Pulitzer winner for A Problem From Hell, her devastating indictment of America's failure to halt genocide in the 20th century, she is now senior director for multilateral affairs for the National Security Council.

OFFICE POLITICS: Will be working closely with Hillary Clinton — after calling her a "monster" during the primaries.

NEXT FIGHT: Leading a review of U.S. policy on Darfur crisis, which has been called "the first genocide of the 21st century."

SEE THE CHANGE: Samantha Power's Blog

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WHAT HE'S CHANGING: If Judd Apatow offers a romantic image of the everyday schlub, Will Ferrell shows the 21st-century American man as he is — cocky, anxious, insular, full of Cool Ranch Doritos and light beer. What's even more impressive is what he makes out of it: a new genre of satiric films, a brilliant one-man Dubya show on Broadway for a smash run, and Funnyordie.com, Ferrell's site with partner Adam McKay — the starriest A/V club on the Web.

FRIENDS SAY: "When you look at some of the characters Will creates," said McKay, "it's bizarre that he's a huge movie star."

SEE THE CHANGE: Funny or Die

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WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Our basic assumptions about American capitalism. The Nobel Prize winner champions the idea that markets are more efficient when government guides free enterprise.

FRIENDS SAY: "Joe Stiglitz is an economist's economist," says Paul Krugman. "For years, he attacked the conventional wisdom that what's good for bankers is good for the economy. Now he's a key critical voice in the debate over how to deal with the mess the bankers made."

KEY QUOTE: "Adam Smith's invisible hand . . . is invisible, at least in part, because it is not there."

SEE THE CHANGE: Joseph Stiglitz's Official Site

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WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Caldeira, one of the U.S.'s leading climate modelers, believes that only radical action will avert global warming before major ecosystems collapse. He's not only thinking out of the box, he's smashed it: "Why don't we just make emitting CO2 illegal?"

NEXT FIGHT: Legitimizing research into geoengineering — the intentional, large-scale manipulation of Earth's climate systems — to stop global warming. chance of success: High. We may have the tools to cool off the Earth, but should we start messing with a system we don't really understand?

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Photo: Josh Tickell