Long Beach, California (CNN) -- Taylor Wilson is going to create a safer source of nuclear energy, help reduce the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons, screen container ships for weapons and power manned missions to other planets. But first ... he has to graduate high school in May. 

Jack Andraka is going to bring his 3-cent screening test for pancreatic, ovarian and lung cancer to market -- an alternative to a standard $800 test. But Jack, 16, hasn't been to high school much lately and isn't even sure he'll graduate. 

The two teenagers with Justin Bieber style haircuts wowed the 1,400 people who attended TED2013 this week, fitting the conference's theme: "The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered." They were among a number of youthful speakers who Time magazine's Ruth Davis Konigsberg called "some of the biggest showstoppers at the annual event." 

By contrast, some of the older voices onstage struck notes that were far less hopeful. Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon declared that the era of strong economic growth in the United States is over -- as America faces the headwinds of an aging population, debt, inequality and educational weaknesses; he argued that it's hard to foresee innovations that could have the transformative effect electricity, indoor plumbing and the internal combustion engine had in powering growth in the past century. 

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, calling for a private sector-funded "race to the top" among states, lamented the inability of Washington politicians to develop a national energy strategy. She got laughs when she noted that Congress' approval rating is worse than lice, root canals and Donald Trump (although better than that of gonorrhea and meth labs). 
How?
The two teenagers with Justin Bieber style haircuts