"In the early 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union were in a treacherous standoff. Each side was on high alert, with a growing stockpile of nuclear weapons ready to launch at the first sign of an attack. U.S. authorities weren't just worried about how to weather an initial attack. They worried about how they would mount a counterattack if a bomb knocked out communications. After all, these fragile systems were highly vulnerable to nuclear attack."
"So, the U.S. military put scientists to work. Their charge: to invent a communications network that could survive an attack. And on the team was one scientist who created an ingenious computer simulation using 1960s-era computers. Doug Rosenberg: As a piece of programming, it's just unthinkable that she could do what she did. I mean, beyond comprehension."
"And then, she would all but disappear into history as soon as her work was done. Katie Hafner: This is Lost Women of Science. I'm Katie Hafner. And today we have the story of Sharla Perrine Boehm, a brilliant computer programmer an"
In the early 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union faced a nuclear standoff with communications systems vulnerable to attack. U.S. authorities worried not only about surviving an initial strike but also about mounting a counterattack if communications were knocked out. The military tasked scientists with inventing a communications network that could survive nuclear attack. One scientist, Sharla Perrine Boehm, created an ingenious computer simulation using 1960s-era computers while working at RAND Corporation. Her simulation and related work helped lay groundwork for the modern Internet, even though her contributions later faded from public recognition.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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