The true life story of Dudley Buck, an American Cold War hero whose pioneering work with computer chips placed him firmly in the sights of the KGB.

Dudley Buck was a brilliant scientist who developed or invented several early pieces of now-common technology (e.g. microchips, flash drives)in the 1950s. Like his Nobel-winning colleagues, he might have benefited from them greatly, had he not died aged 32 of a mysterious heart attack, just after a high-profile group of Soviet scientists visited his lab on a cold war-era tour of the USA.

Buck was not the only scientist to expire that day - his colleague Dr Ridenour, chief scientist at Lockheed, also died of an unexplained heart attack. Both deaths are consistent with KGB contact-poison hits.

Recently discovered papers reveal Buck's extensive career in clandestine government work, that had led to his contact with Russia's top computer scientists. His work was filed away and rediscovered in the 1980s when it was used in research projects by NASA.

A fascinating narrative history of Cold War era computer and tech research, combining social historical elements to produce a brilliant portrait of America in the mid-20th century.

Contents

1.Project Lightning
2.Santa Barbara Sound Laboratories
3.The V-12 Program 31
4.Seesaw 41
Operation Rusty
6.Project Whirlwind 59
7.Memory 71
8.Forging Bonds 83
Project Nomad 95
10.Two Small Wires
11.The Cryotron
12.Lab Rats 123
13.The Missile Gap
14.Fame 153
15.The Post-sputnik Effect
16.A Reciprocal Arrangement
17.The Missile Men 191
18.The Russians have Landed
19.A Package 219
20.The Extra Pieces of the Puzzle
21.Postscript 259

List of Interviewees 263
Chapter Notes 265
Acknowledgments 273
Index 275