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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hello SIGCIS,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In the wake of Andy’s recent self-promotion, please allow me to pop up suddenly in your inbox to let you know about a new podcast centered on Klara von Neumann. It’s season 2 of _<i>Lost Women of Science</i>_, fronted by Katie Hafner of NY Times, WELL & _<i>Where Wizards Stay Up Late</i>_ fame and distributed with PRX and Scientific American. Klara von Neumann made her main contributions to the history of computing between 1947 and 1950. In my book _<i>ENIAC in Action</i>_ (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope) we argued that the code she wrote in 1947/8 for ENIAC was not just the first Monte Carlo simulation run on a computer but the first “modern” code of any kind executed on any computer. She worked hands on with ENIAC during two long visits that year, and played an even more central role in further fission and fusion simulations run on behalf of Los Alamos in 1949 and 1950. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Yet despite her conspicuous accomplishments, and a prominent appearance in George Dyson’s bestselling and idiosyncratic _<i>Turing’s Cathedral</i>_ she never quite made list of well known pioneering women in computing. <Grumpy aside> Compounding this general neglect, the most prominent online source about her, a 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article, is centered on something she didn’t do (invent numerical meteorology). <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/meet-computer-scientist-you-should-thank-your-phone-weather-app-180963716/">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/meet-computer-scientist-you-should-thank-your-phone-weather-app-180963716/</a> In fact she didn’t write the code for this project, wasn’t there when it was run, didn’t manage the punched cards holding data, and despite the article’s title doesn’t need to be thanked for your smartphone weather app. Unfortunately the bogus claim has now been further garbled by the Guardian and written into Wikipedia, so likely it will never go away. </grumpy aside><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In contrast, the Lost Women of Science format devotes an entire season to a single “lost woman” which is a nice change from the thriving industry of shoddily sourced quickie online articles recycling tired anecdotes about the same handful of (by now well-known) inspirational women. So there’s an actual team of journalists behind it who did archival research and spoke with a lot of people, including SIGCIS stalwarts such as Janet Abbate, Nathan Ensmenger and Anne Fitzpatrick. I feature up quite prominently in episodes three and four, which deal with ENIAC and the work that Klara did with it. That’s when computers enter the picture, but I urge you to listen to the whole thing – it’s a very high quality production and delves into Klara’s story to turn up information on her earlier life that I wasn’t aware of and I don’t believe has been fully reported elsewhere. I was very impressed with the team’s commitment to getting details correct and its willingness to explore the paradoxes and ambiguities of a complicated life without trying to shoehorn it into a tidy narrative template.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The first four episodes are up at <a href="https://lostwomenofscience.org/season-2">https://lostwomenofscience.org/season-2</a>. There should be one more coming soon, plus a bonus episode.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>In addition, you might be interested in an event that was organized at the Computer History Museum to launch the new season. It featured me in conversation with Katie Hafner, moderated by Maria Klawe. There’s a nice blog post at <a href="https://computerhistory.org/blog/there-at-the-creation/">https://computerhistory.org/blog/there-at-the-creation/</a>, which includes video snippets embedded in the text (as well as the whole thing at the bottom).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><br>Tom<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>