True genius: The life and science of John Bardeen [Book Review]
Resting on what is sometimes a slender foundation, present-day feminists seeking to reclaim the voices of women written out of history have heralded the computer visionary Ada Lovelace as something of a mythic heroine. Alternatively, several scholars see her role as a minor walk-on part in a much larger drama. In this lushly filmed documentary, the real Ada—somewhere between heroine and dilettante—emerges as an intelligent , sensitive, and extremely well-connected woman moving within the highest levels of Victorian society. As part of Flare Productions' Women of Power documentary series—which also includes films on Ruth Berlau, Virginia Woolf, and Hildegard of Bingen—this presentation of the case for Ada Byron Lovelace's prefig-uring the Computer Age remained evanescent. Mostly, this is because grasping what Ada understood—without the ever-present trap of Whiggish history in which past events are reinterpreted as the ratification of the pres-ent—is notoriously difficult. But let us be generous: hers was an important correspondence (and thus record) of contemporary achievements in calculation and of Charles Babbage's trials (much of his own making) in bringing such concepts to fruition. I left the film, pre-miered at Stanford University by the Computer History Museum as part of its ongoing lecture series in the history of computing, with great sympathy and a better understanding of the nuances of the Babbage–Lovelace relationship, even if undecided about her ultimate role. This excellent biography of John Bardeen—a close friend of mine for nearly 60 years since graduate student days—by Hoddeson and Daitch makes it clear that Bardeen was a remarkable individual, Nobel Prizes aside. He possessed, at an elevated level, several important attributes that are linked to his professional successes as a scientist and engineer. At the top was his love of mathematics, particularly its applications to specific engineering or scientific problems. This interest guided him in his initial decision to focus his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering and to spend the following three years at the Gulf Oil Corporation's Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh. It also influenced his eventual decision to extend his education further and seek a doctorate in physics at Princeton University, entering in 1933 as somewhat of a latecomer. His use of mathematics was not highly refined, as is the case for the professional mathematicians who are interested in the most abstract problems in the field. His approach was based on using mathematics as a tool for solving specific technical or scientific problems, usually closely …