In pre-Sputnik days, the case of Private Ernest Shult, 24, would probably have been laughed off as a bit of routine Army bungling. Gangling, brown-haired Shult, assistant to a professor at Southern Illinois University, seemed to be just one more recruit when he reported to Fort
Lee, Va. last April. Since he did not have his degree (he was one credit short in physical education), the camp tagged him "clerk-typist" and thought no more about him. Then last fortnight Shult's old professor, Geneticist Carl C. Lindegren, let out a blast. The private, said the professor, "is the outstanding mathematical genius I have...
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