nathan myhrvold got his ph.d.ed with stephen hawking and then for years was the chief technology officer at microsoft. he now runs a company called intellectual ventures. there he gets to indulge his passions. he spent time, money and brain power on such diverse subjects as bread baking, nuclear power, and dinosaurs. his company is working on all three plus much more. one of his latest projects was spurred by a challenge from bill gates, who asked myhrvold to help solve a tough problem -- how to keep fragile medicines cold in hot climates in developing countries where constant electricity is far from a guarantee. the team tinkered and tinkered until they found a solution. >> reporter: nathan, a pleasure to have you on again. >> well, it's a pleasure to be here. >> reporter: this sounds like a simple problem. you know, why don't you put it in a thermos. explain why this was hard and how you solved it. >> well, you know, it turns out that when you find really hard problems in society, there's a reason why they're ha

. >>> a few weeks ago when i was in seattle, i was invited to visit the working laboratory of nathan myhrvoldmyhrvold was the long-time chief technology officer at microsoft, trained in physics by stephen hawking, and is a true polymath with interests ranging from physics to food and math and everything in between. he and his team have been working on nuclear power to stopping asteroids from hitting the either. it's xhenly believed that asteroids wiped out the dinosaurs but he says asteroid impacts are not just ancient history. take a listen. you don't think we pay enough attention to the problem of asteroids. >> so in 1908, an asteroid hit in siberia. it devastated hundreds of square miles. it was hundreds of megatons. it was bigger than the largest atomic explosion ever on earth. but as luck would have it, it strikes the middle of siberia, in an area where there's only a few reindeer herders. if that asteroid was an hour earlier or later, if it had hit in europe, the united states, even if it had hit in the middle of the ocean, we would have grown up with the whole 20th century shaped by th

. >> thanks to nathan myhrvold for inviting us into his lab.e with him in coming weeks. >>> up next the world's youngest self-made female billionaire. how did she make her money? all from a drop of blood. i'll explain when we come back. we got the new tempur-flex and it's got the spring and bounce of a traditional mattress. you sink into it, but you can still move it around. now that i have a tempur-flex, i can finally get a good night's sleep. when i flop down on the bed, and it's just like, 'ah, this is perfect." wherever you put your body it just supports you. like little support elfs are just holding you. i can sleep now! through the night! (vo) change your sleep. change your life. change to tempur-pedic. why do we do it? why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people? why are we so committed to keeping you connected? why combine performance with a conscience? why innovate for a future without accidents? why do any of it? why do all of it? because if it matters to you it's everything to us. the xc60 crossover. from volvo. lease