Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

Five years ago, Roz Savage quit her high-powered London job to become an ocean rower. She's crossed the Atlantic solo, and just started the third leg of a Pacific solo row, the first for a woman. Why does she do it? Hear her reasons, both deeply personal and urgently activist.

A latecomer to the life of adventure, Roz Savage worked as a management consultant for 11 years before setting out in a new life direction -- in a rowboat across the Atlantic Ocean. She completed her solo row across the Atlantic in 2005 and is now on a mission be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific, from the West Coast of the US to Australia. She began the pursuit in 2008, rowing from California to Hawaii, and rowed from Hawaii to Kiribati in 2009. In April 2010 she began the third and final stage of her Pacific row, from Kiribati to Australia.

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

Kavita Ramdas is president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, a publicly supported grantmaking foundation that advances human rights by investing in women-led organizations worldwide.

Over the past 22 years, the Global Fund has provided more than 7,000 grants, reaching more than 3,000 groups. Since Ramdas took the reins, the fund's assets have more than tripled -- and so has the number of countries the group works in, now at 170.

The Global Fund for Women contributes to groups that improve women's economic security, work to end gender-based violence, increase access to education at all stages of life, provide critical health services and encourage women to take leadership roles in the public sector.

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

Some 80 to 90 percent of undersea creatures make light -- and we know very little about how or why. Bioluminescence expert Edith Widder explores this glowing, sparkling, luminous world, sharing glorious images and insight into the unseen depths (and brights) of the ocean.

Edith Widder combines her expertise in research and technological innovation with a commitment to stopping and reversing the degradation of our marine environment.

A specialist in bioluminescence, Edith Widder helps design and invent new submersible instruments and equipment to study bioluminescence and enable unobtrusive observation of deep-sea environments. One of these instruments, the Eye in the Sea observatory, has produced footage of rare sharks, squid and never-before-seen bioluminescent displays.

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

A scholarship from big tobacco company led Leila to volunteer as a teacher in Ghana.

Seeing her students ambition combined with the rise in global literacy and access to technology, Leila presents the concept of microworks a way to overcome poverty and participate in the global tech economy.

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

Natalie Merchant sings from her new album, Leave Your Sleep. Lyrics from near-forgotten 19th-century poetry pair with her unmistakable voice for a performance that brought the TED audience to its feet.

In the 1980s, Natalie Merchant led the great folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs. She went solo in the '90s, and to maintain creative control over her music, she self-funded her debut album, Tigerlily, which had chart-toppers like "Jealousy," "Carnival" and "Wonder."

She recorded her sophomore album, Ophelia, at her home studio; the album went platinum, and she headlined at Lilith Fair and joined the American Folk Music Tour before releasing Motherland, which paired her rich voice with more strings.