At age 12, Andrew Bastawrous was told by his teachers that he was slow and inattentive. But the results of an eye exam explained why: he had very poor vision. Globally, as many as 2.5 billion people who need glasses don’t have them -- and are unable to reach their full potential as a result. Now an eye surgeon, Bastawrous shares his brief but spectacular take on eradicating avoidable blindness.

"The opioid epidemic is the greatest public health crisis of our generation," says clinical psychologist Navdeep Kang. But, he says, a lot of people struggle to get access to care, facing long wait times, when addiction should be treated just like any other chronic health condition. Kang gives his Brief but Spectacular take on rethinking addiction treatment.

When Minda Dentler was a baby she contracted polio, which paralyzed her legs. Adopted by an American family, she grew up watching other kids run and jump. It wasn't until business school that she finally felt the wind through her hair -- and now she is an Ironman world champion. Dentler gives her Brief but Spectacular take on living with a disability.

"I’ve always thought that seeing is believing,” said Dr. Elizabeth Wayne, a biomedical engineer. In her career, that’s meant innovating new ways of showing people what happens in the body, but also, as a black woman in the sciences, the importance of representation and being a role model. Wayne gives her Brief but Spectacular take on the power of images in science and life.