Life has a funny habit of turning out quite differently from what you expect. Take Christian Mellwig, for example. He explains to Vienna Leigh that he was determined that, whatever path he took in life, it wouldn’t be teaching.

Rebecca Skloot tells Sonia Furtado and Marlene Rau how she became a science writer, where she finds inspiration for her stories - and invites you to enter the Science in School science writing competition.

Conspiracies are at the heart of many a good film and book. Swedish biology teacher Per Kornhall is the author of a critical book on intelligent design and how it is taught in biology lessons in religious schools in Sweden. He talks to Sai Pathmanathan and Marlene Rau about his fascination with modern science and his views on teaching the diversity of life.

“Intelligence is of secondary importance in research.” So says our featured scientist, cosmologist Tamara Davis. For her, interest and inspiration are far more important for success in science. Tamara herself certainly lacks neither interest nor inspiration (nor, I suspect, intelligence). She tells Henri Boffin about her work on dark energy, supernovae, the speed of light, and life elsewhere in the Universe – and how she combines this with playing world-class sport.