MEPX
Chapter 7 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Before modern science
  2. 2The scientific revolution
  3. 3Chemistry and the elements
  4. 4Life sciences
  5. 5Modern physics
  6. 6The molecular era
  7. 7Computing and mathematics
  8. 8Astronomy and space
  9. 9Medicine and public health
  10. 10What the record shows

Chapter 7 of 10

Computing and mathematics

Formalising thought.

Foundations

Ada Lovelace described general purpose computation on Babbage's design, and Turing defined computability and the limits of algorithms.

  • Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality and pardoned only posthumously.
  • Grace Hopper's compiler work made high level languages practical.

Mathematicians

Gauss, Euler, Noether, Ramanujan and Hilbert shaped the mathematics that later physics and computing depended on, often long before any application existed.