CRYOTRON FILES : Strange Death of a Pioneering Cold War Computer Scientist
Iain Dey
- 1
- London Icon Books 2018/01/01
- 286
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
9781785784347
Purchased Prism Books,Kadavanthra
Biography Computer Scientist -- Microchip Pioneer Douglas Buck -- American Cold War History Buck, Dudley Allen -- 1927-1959 Buck, Dudley. Computing Informatiker