I am researching a potential documentary series. I am looking for
strong stories. I am looking for people who have been told it can't be
done (whatever that may be) but still went ahead and did it and in
some small or big way made the world a better place. They went against
the grain or popular opinion. These people can be from anywhere in the
world but we prefer Europe and they need to be alive. I am also
looking for a mix of industry - could be science or sport or the arts.
An example is the Odene family who created/discovered Lorenzo's oil
despite being told their son's medical condition was hopeless. Please
supply at least 7 stories.

"... and they need to be alive."  !!    (So don't start with Columbus.)

Albert Gore...couldn't lose the presidential election in 2000 but found a way.

I thought the answer was great.  I'd have given it top rating.

Thanks kbrowntx47-ga!

However, since jgilbey-ga has a different opinion then I respect that as well.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

I saw the answer but not the clarification that led to its retraction.
Perhaps those people didn't "make the world better".

Nelson Mandela certainly did, and Richard Branson also, by introducing
the concept of no-frills airlines.  I would also credit Mikhail
Gorbachev with having made the world better by introducing glasnost.
There must be some other Nobel Prize winners who fit the description.
Lech Walesa could also be mentioned.

JGilbery --

One of my scientific heroes is a guy named Walter Alvarez, who with
his father, Luis, discovered evidence of a giant meteor that slammed
into Earth 65 million years ago, causing the extinction of the
dinosaurs.  The evidence for the event that created the K-T
(Cretaceous-Tertiary)  separation was found in irridium deposits
around the world.  To say that their initial theory was ridiculed by
scientists is an understatement.

Of course it has come to be accepted as the reason for the
disappearance of the dinosaurs -- and the Yucatan peninsula is even
identified as the location of the giant impact crater.

He wrote about the two-decade effort in "T.Rex and the Crater of Doom".

He's at Berkeley:
http://eps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/faculty.cgi?name=alvarez

Luis Alvarez, the father, is a Nobel Prize winning physicist but he died in 1988.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

What about James Watson for his part in discovering DNA?
BIll Gates  -  you don't have to like him to admit that he has done a
lot to make the world better,  and is on a different level with his
foundation.

Perhaps consider the following: 
1.The hunger project - a group got together in the 1970's and decided
they would eradicate hunger in the world. They have made good
progress. Came across it in a book called "The Soul of Money"

2.Bob Geldof/Band Aid - was probably initially told it couldn't be done. 

3.Women's peace movement in Northern Ireland during the 1970's. -
There is peace there now, and I suspect they helped create it. Some of
the women must be still alive.

4.In contrast perhaps consider Gerry Adams and the IRA. They were told
by Sting in his song that started "there is no political solution"
that it couldn't be done. Since the IRA raised funds for their
terrorist activities in the USA and UK, it strikes me as a really
interesting case.

5.Lazlo Turkes (? sp and name) - He was the priest that sparked the
downfall of Caucescu in Romania in 1991. - He was going to be thrown
out of his church, because he had upset the authorities, mainly by
running a successful church. He asked his parishioners to observe. So
2 secret policeman come along to throw him out, but turned back when
they saw the crowd. This surprised the parishioners, so they got more
friends to join. So when more police came along, they saw an even
bigger crowd. One riot led to another, and goodbye Caucescu. I think
he is now bishop of Oradia in Romania.

No more ideas I'm afriad, but thanks for an wonderful question.

How about Steven Hawking?