Science at the Oscars

This year’s Oscar nominees for best picture include two biopics focused on scientists: The Imitation Game, about Alan Turing, and The Theory of Everything, about Stephen Hawking. That the stories of scientists are up there with snipers and ironic superheros reminds us that some of the very best stories out there come from the lives of scientists. Here are three of Nautilus' very own. 1. The Man Who Tried to Redeem the World with Logic Walter Pitts rose from the streets to MIT, but couldn’t escape himself. By Amanda Gefter Walter Pitts was used to being bullied. He’d been born into a tough family in Prohibition-era Detroit, where his father, a boiler-maker, had no trouble raising his fists to get his way. The neighborhood boys weren’t much better. One afternoon in 1935, they chased him through the streets until he ducked into the local library to hide. The library was familiar ground, where he had taught himself Greek, Latin, logic, and mathematics—better than home, where his father insisted he drop out of school and go to work. Outside, the world was messy. Inside, it all made sense. READ MORE 2. The Artist of the Unbreakable Code Composer Edward Elgar still has cryptographers playing his tune. By Mark MacNamara It was the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897. Through a periscope, England was sailing along in all its hope and glory. That summer Edward Elgar turned 40 and was slowly emerging as the country’s greatest composer. For the jubilee he’d written The Imperial March, a foreshadowing of the Pomp and Circumstance marches that would make him famous. Earlier in the year he’d presented King Olaf, a foreshadowing of the choral and orchestral works that would make him great, including The Dream of Gerontius and Variations on an Original Theme (“Enigma”), known as theEnigma Variations. READ MORE 3. The Man Who Invented Modern Probability Chance encounters in the life of Andrei Kolmogorov. By Slava Gerovitch If two statisticians were to lose each other in an infinite forest, the first thing they would do is get drunk. That way, they would walk more or less randomly, which would give them the best chance of finding each other. However, the statisticians should stay sober if they want to pick mushrooms. Stumbling around drunk and without purpose would reduce the area of exploration, and make it more likely that the seekers would return to the same spot, where the mushrooms are already gone. READ MORE To really curl up with Nautilus, subscribe today and get your copy of our Winter 2015 Nautilus Quarterly. It includes new features, some of our best online content, and pages of sumptuous illustration. Join us on a journey of surprises.