Explanation: Alan Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist whose revolutionary work during WW2 helped the British shorten the war considerably by breaking (and thus having access to) Nazi coded messages.
A little over half a decade after the war, a chance break-in at his house led to him accidentally incriminating himself - by admitting to the presence of his boyfriend. This being the 1950s UK, the courts gave him a choice for the horrific crime of homosexuality - chemical castration, or several months in prison. Turing considered that he would not last in prison, and opted for the chemical treatment. Some time later, he bit into an apple laced with cyanide and died, which many consider to be an act of suicide (though it is still disputed, some believe it was genuinely an accident).
How do you “accidentally” lace an apple with cyanide? Was that just a common thing they had lying around back then, like plutonium in 1985?
First, Turing was awesome and what was done to him by the British government was criminal.
However, three brilliant Poles cracked Enigma long before Turing did. Those Poles were Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki. As much as I enjoy reading and learning about Turing’s early work with electric computers, the work Rejewski did with his team was even more impressive to me.
You can read more about these unsung heroes here.
Thanks for sharing. Super interesting read
