Alan Turing: the short, brilliant life and tragic death of an enigma

Wednesday 20 June 2012 17.48 BST

Alan Turing: the short, brilliant life and tragic death of an enigma
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Codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing's legacy comes to life in a 
Science Museum exhibition

    Maev Kennedy

A German Enigma coding machine on loan from Mick Jagger and a 1950 
computer with less calculating power than a smartphone but which was once 
the fastest in the world, are among the star objects in a new exhibition 
at the Science Museum devoted to the short, brilliant life and tragic 
death of the scientist Alan Turing.

"We are in geek heaven," his nephew Sir John Turing said, surrounded by 
pieces of computing history which are sacred relics to Turing's admirers, 
including a computer-controlled tortoise that had enchanted the scientist 
when he saw it at the museum in the 1951 Festival of Britain. "This 
exhibition is a great tribute to a very remarkable man," Turing said.

"My father was in awe of him, the word genius was often used in speaking 
of him in the family," he said, "but he also spoke of his eccentricity, of 
how he cycled to work at Bletchley wearing a gas mask to control his 
hayfever so the local people he passed dreaded that a gas attack was 
imminent."

The exhibition, marking the centenary of Turing's birth, tackles both the 
traumatic personal life and the brilliant science of the man who was a key 
member of the codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, and devised the Turing 
Test which is still the measure of artificial intelligence..../snip/


http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/20/alan-turing-science-museum-exhibition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2012/jun/20/codebreaker-alan-turing-science-museum-video

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/turing.aspx





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