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

I'm seriously impressed by Mick Jagger's generosity. I would never have believed that he would own an Enigma Machine. 

Hat's off! Sir Mick!

Cheers 

Glenn Geers
Technology Director, ITL
NICTA


On 21/06/2012, at 22:00, Martin Postranecky <mp-/[email protected]> wrote:

> Wednesday 20 June 2012 17.48 BST
> 
> Alan Turing: the short, brilliant life and tragic death of an enigma
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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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