Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson

Dan Atkinson is a well-known commentator on economic and financial matters and is co-author of The Age of Insecurity, one of the most influential works about the political economy of the last few years. Formerly with The Guardian, he is now economics editor of The Mail on Sunday.

Philip Ball

Formerly on the staff of Nature, Philip Ball is now a full-time writer. He lives in London.

John Barrow

John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Vice-President of Clare Hall College, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Royal Society. His principal area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science, The Origin of the Universe; The Universe that Discovered Itself; The Book of Nothing; The Constants of Nature:from alpha to omega; The Infinite Book: a short guide to the boundless, timeless and endless, The Artful Universe Expanded, and New Theories of Everything.He is also the author of the award-winning play Infinities.

Dexter Filkins

Dexter Filkins has been foreign correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq for the New York Times since 2000. He was a member of the Iraq bureau from 2003 to 2006, a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2006, and is currently a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for his work from Afghanistan in 2002, he has received numerous awards, including the George Polk awards for his coverage of the assault of Falluja in 2004, and an Overseas Press Club award.

Misha Glenny

Misha Glenny is a distinguished journalist and historian. As the Central Europe Correspondent first for The Guardian and then for the BBC, he chronicled the collapse of communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He has won several major awards for his work, including the Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. The author of three books on Eastern Europe and the Balkans, he has been regularly consulted by the US and European governments on major policy issues and ran an NGO for three years, assisting with the reconstruction of Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo. He now lives in London.