Top Ten Most Interesting People That Made 2017 Remarkable

Here’s our picks for INSH's Top 10 Interesting People of 2017, along with their underknown and amazing accomplishments. Check out these amazing people!

Learn more something more about the people and stories that dominated the press. There were the individuals who did amazing things and didn’t get the recognition we thought they deserved. Here you will find the game-changing stories of ten people that helped make 2017 unforgettable.

All too often, we think of disability as a limiting factor, but Stephen Wiltshire proves to us again and again that it can be a superpower. In 2017, this autistic artist drew the entire New York City skyline—in 5 days—from memory. Did we mention he did this after only a 45 minute helicopter ride?

In the Pacific islands, donations of outdated and improperly sized wheelchairs create an environmental issue without helping solve a humanitarian one. Kylie Mines created a foundation called “Motivation Australia”, which is helping to make “wheelchair graveyards” a thing of the past by providing properly fitted equipment to people in need.

Scientists estimate that 80% of the world’s species are still unknown, but the founders of Taxon Expeditions—a company that teaches citizen scientists how to find new species—are aiming to help change this total. On their first expedition, their citizen scientists, Menno Schilthuizen and Iva Njunjić, helped discover six new species of beetles.

This year will go down in history as the year a robot was declared a citizen of a country. You might think a story like this would come from Japan, but in reality, the world’s first Robot Citizen has a Saudi Arabian passport, and is named Sophia.

Nagoya University physicist Kunihiro Morishima led the team that found a previously unknown cavity in the Great Pyramid of Egypt. They used subatomic particles called muons to find the undiscovered cavern—proving once again that science and archeology continue to become close friends.

While there is still no official identity (or face to put to the name) of its creator, Bitcoin has hit multiple new record highs this year, and was even adopted by several major investment firms. Satoshi Nakamoto’s impact has been felt this year more than any other, even if his identity is still a secret.

An artist and environmentalist, Jason deCaires Taylor worked with Museo Atlántico in an effort to re-establish coral reef beds by building underwater art installations that are friendly to the growth of coral. He is one of the first artists to marry contemporary art with the conservation of marine life.

In the U.S., approximately 10% of babies are born prematurely, and 6% of those are born extremely premature. Preemies require extensive health support and often face lifelong health consequences. Alan Flake, a fetal surgeon at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, and his team, aim to change things in this area; they have created an artificial womb that has worked for lambs, and could revolutionize treatment for premature births.

Not only is she a pioneer of “space archeology”, Sarah Parcak has brought her tools to the masses with her organization GlobalXplorer; giving satellite tools to ordinary people. Together, novice archeologists have used the platform to find tens of thousands of archaeological sites and features in Peru since launch earlier this year.

Wall Street is famous for the statue of the charging bull that symbolizes the aggressive power of the stock market. This year, the bull was joined by a small statue of a young girl staring down the bull; an idea brought to life by Tali Gumbiner, Lizzie Wilson and Kristen Visbal. With her defiant spirit, the statue of “Fearless Girl” is an excellent piece of art to describe this year.