Thursday, Jun. 17, 2010
The Code Breaker
Britain's reward to mathematician Alan Turing (left) for cracking Nazi codes was to convict him for "gross indecency." Turing, who was discovered to be gay seven years after the war ended, was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. In keeping with the British laws of the day, Turing was given the option of either hormone treatment or prison once his illegal sexuality came to light. Instead, he took his own life in 1954. An Internet campaign on 10 Downing Street's website resulted in Prime Minister Gordon Brown issuing a posthumous apology on September 11, 2009 for the mistreatment of the man who some say helped shorten World War II by at least two years.