10 more scientists who changed the tech world
BE INSPIRED AS TECHLIFE RETRACES THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ANOTHER TEN SCIENTISTS WHO MADE MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TECHNOLOGY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD.
1. EVELYN BEREZIN
Next time you work on that Word document, thank Evelyn Berezin. Having received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1946 from New York University, Berezin worked for a number of companies, designing early computer hardware, including the first computerised airline passenger reservation system.
But it was her 1968 idea of a computerised word processor that led her to launching the Redactron Corporation the following year. During the 1970s, the company sold standalone computerised word processors that looked like an electric typewriter with a separate cabinet that stored documents, initially on cassette tape cartridges. It sounds ancient by today’s standards, but it meant, for the first time, typists could edit documents before printing out pristine final copies.
Business equipment manufacturer Burroughs bought Redactron in 1976, but by 1980, the microcomputer revolution was well underway. Even in those early days, popular word processors such as WordStar and WordPerfect were running on a variety of computer systems, not to mention a little app launched in 1983 called Microsoft Word...
2. SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE
For many, Tim Berners-Lee needs no introduction, for he’s credited with creating one of the most transformational inventions of the 20th century — the World Wide Web. But it was an invention borne out of apparent frustration and what Berners-Lee himself
described to Time magazine in 1997 as "being in the right place at the right time" ( tinyurl.com/kp5hh29).
All the pieces to this puzzle already existed — the internet, an international network of computers, had been in place since the mid1980s and the concept of linking or ‘hypertext’ had been first proposed back in 1945. BernersLee was working at CERN, Europe’s science laboratory, in 1989, when the seeds of an idea to solve the problem of colleagues continually asking for information began to germinate. His initial proposal to link the various CERN labs around the world together using hypertexted databases of information, according to Berners-Lee "didn’t go down well" with his superiors. But he persevered and the result was the World Wide Web, the first website going live on August 6th, 1991.
Today, the World Wide Web continues to transform economies around the world, much the same as that earlier ‘worldwide web’ — the railways — did during the 1800s.
4. LOIS HAIBT
By the early-1950s, programming a computer was a complex task of hand-coding using computer-focused ‘assembly language’ that was complex, difficult to explain and easy to muck up. In 1954, Lois Haibt became the only woman in a 10-strong team of computer scientists IBM brought together under the lead of John Backus to come up with a solution. The goal was a language that would allow mathematical equations to be coded using a more natural or ‘higher’ language, closer to what humans could
understand. It took until 1957 to complete, but the result was FORTRAN, which became the first commercially-successful high-level programming language and the forerunner of coding languages that make the world work today. It was developed on an IBM 704, a computer capable of 12,000 floating-point additions per second, built from electronic valves. The FORTRAN language has morphed into many different forms since those early days and one version is now part of the Free Software Movement’s GNU Project. You can even try FORTRAN online at the TutorialsPoint website ( tinyurl.com/n5eb5qb).
5. MARCIAN HOFF
If the invention of the transistor in 1947 signalled the beginning of the modern era of electronics, it was the invention of the microprocessor in 1971 that ushered in the modern digital age. Portable electronic calculators were the hot new gadget of the late 1960s (and even then, many came with handles), but they all required multiple chips to deliver the basic mathematical functions. Japanese firm Busicom was keen to create a new electronic calculator and approached a young start-up called ‘Intel’ in 1969 to supply the series of chips required for each unit. With an aim of reducing the chip count per device, Hoff proposed combining the functions of some chips into a single universal ‘processor’ chip. In the end, Hoff, along with colleagues — chip designer Federico Faggin, software developer Stanley Mazor, plus Busicom designer Masatoshi Shima — teamed up to create what became the Intel 4004, the world’s first microprocessor, in 1971. The 4004’s successor, the Intel 8008, powered the first IBM Personal Computer in 1981 and the PC revolution was born.
6. KATHERINE JOHNSON
In the early years of computing and before Lois Haibt and fellow team members developed FORTRAN, many ‘computers’ employed at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) were real people — mathematicians who would calculate complex equations by hand. Katherine Johnson was a gifted AfricanAmerican student who graduated with degrees in Maths and French at just 18. By 1953, she had broken into the traditionally male-dominated world of research mathematics, accepting a job as a ‘computer’ at NACA (which became NASA in 1958). Her skills were a key contributor to the success of many early NASA space missions, and in particular, the first manned orbit of the Earth by astronaut John Glenn in 1962. Glenn had refused to fly using new flight trajectory numbers calculated for the first time by electronic computer until they had been cross-checked by Johnson.
Her achievements, along with those of engineer Mary Jackson and mathematician Dorothy Vaughn, featured in the recent Margot Lee Shetterly book (and Hollywood movie) Hidden Figures.
7. MARY KENNETH KELLER
Born in the US mid-west state of Ohio just before the outbreak of World War I, Mary Kenneth Keller became a Catholic nun in 1940, just as World War II deepened. Keller believed in the importance of education, continuing her own with a Bachelors Degree in mathematics in 1943, followed by a Masters Degree in maths and physics 10 years later. However, it’s as the first woman in the US to receive a doctorate in Computer Science, in June 1965, that Keller is remembered, going on to launch the Computer Science department at Iowa’s Clarke College (now Clarke University).
Keller was also one of the students under the direction of John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz who developed the BASIC (Beginner’s Allpurpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language in 1964. BASIC was an important breakthrough in computer programming, allowing anyone to learn how to code a computer. It featured as the core
component in many early home computers during the late-1970s and early-1980s, from Tandy’s TRS-80 to the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX80-series, helping to inspire a new generation of computer programmers.
8. TREVOR PEARCEY
Building a PC today is a relatively easy task. Back in 1947, however, things were very different for Trevor Pearcey. Having graduated from London’s Imperial College in 1940 in maths and physics, Pearcey emigrated to Australia in 1945 to join the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (renamed the CSIRO in 1949) in radio-physics. But the CSIR’s far-reaching decision to focus on electronic computing as a third area of research rather than radio-propagation gave Pearcey new focus. With just three stored-program computers in the known world by 1947, Pearcey began pioneering Australia’s entry into the computer age. It took another two years to complete, but the CSIR Mk.I computer (later renamed CSIRAC) hummed into life and ran its first program in November 1949. It was transferred to the University of Melbourne in 1955, but what’s more remarkable about this particular computer today is that it still exists — it’s the world’s oldest surviving first-gen electronic computer and on display at the Melbourne Museum. Pearcey’s legacy is continued by the Pearcey Foundation, awarding the Pearcey Medal in recognition of outstanding achievement in Australian information and computer technology each year (
9. RADIA PERLMAN
With a mash-up of different network connections and speeds, how do you tell which route is the fastest from one network port to another? In the days before network devices called ‘switches’, simpler networking modules called ‘bridges’ provided the connection, but allowed the problem of ‘bridge loop’ where data could circle a loop indefinitely — how to solve that? Radia Perlman asked the same questions while working at Digital Equipment Corporation in the 1980s. Perlman had graduated with Bachelors (1973) and Masters (1976) degrees in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and while working for a government software contractor, she gave a presentation to executives from Digital, who quickly offered her a job. The solution she invented (which is still in use today) is the basis of the ‘Spanning Tree Protocol’, a set of rules enabling a computer network to determine the ‘cost’ of each network path, then to re-route data over the network. In effect, STP is a network’s traffic control system, enabling much larger networks to control the flow of data without crunching into peak-hour-like gridlock.
10. DAVID WARREN
David Warren was just nine years old when his father was killed in an air crash over Bass Strait in 1934, an event that likely focused his future endeavours. The crash of de Havilland Comet flight 781 in January 1954 resulted in the loss of all passengers and crew, but wasn’t the first involving the world’s first commercial jet- powered airliner. Warren, now research scientist with Australia’s Aeronautical Research Laboratory, could see how important having cockpit voice recordings could be in the event of a crash investigation. Remembering seeing miniature sound recorders at a recent tradeshow, the idea of the ‘black box’ was born.
Despite spending his own money and building the first black box flight recorder in 1956, it wasn’t until 1958 that Warren was first able to generate interest, during an Australian visit by British air Vice-Marshal Sir Robert Hardingham. Immediately, the UK Ministry of Aviation was keen, so too the Canadians; and Australia, initially slow to see the potential, became the first country to make black box flight recorders compulsory in commercial aircraft in 1960.
IT'S ALL ABOUT PERSEVERANCE (AND MATHS!)
If there’s a common thread amongst a number of scientists we’ve covered so far, it’s that their triumph often came against adversity and adversity that was often man-made. Tommy Flowers built the first all-electronic computer during World War II using his own money because his superiors didn’t believe electronic valves were reliable enough. Katherine Johnson overcomes racial and gender prejudice in 1950s NACA. David Warren develops the first black box flight recorder in 1956, but it takes another four years before Australia is convinced to mandate it into commercial aircraft.
The trend at the moment is to say you’re ‘passionate’ about your work, hobbies or whatever, but the scientists that history remembers are remembered also for their perseverance. Many achievements that seem like moments of instant discovery almost always come after periods of study, research — and sometimes official indifference.
Still, perseverance is shown often not just in the face of others, but by what we tell ourselves. When others say something can’t be done, the persistent ones, like Flowers, use that to spur themselves on. If we tell ourselves something can’t be done, the battle is already lost.
The 19th and 20th centuries were eras of incredible scientific achievement, but a recent Australian Government report has found student enrolments in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are at 20-year-lows ( tinyurl.com/lxduqto). Many of the breakthroughs we’ve looked at came as the result of study in mathematics and if we’re to continue discovering solutions to the world’s problems, those STEM enrolments must be reversed.
If you have an interest in science, tech, engineering or maths, that’s awesome! Go for it! There is no shortage of opportunities to learn, from online courses to university degrees. The world needs solutions for everything, from Alzheimer’s to Zika Virus. And you