Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 4: Netherworld

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 06:00:00 GMT
Scientific American - Technology

Klára Dán von Neumann enters the Netherworld of computer simulations and postwar Los Alamos National...

KATIE HAFNER: I'm Katie Hafner, and this is Lost Women of Science, where we unearth the stories of scientists who haven't gotten the recognition they deserve.

KATIE HAFNER: That's Thomas Haigh, the history professor you've been hearing throughout the season.

KATIE HAFNER: Klári even wrote the first ever report on Monte Carlo computer simulations.

KATIE HAFNER: During the third run, Klári trained some new recruits.

KATIE HAFNER: The couples phenomenonThis was a common way women got jobs: teaming up with their spouses.

KATIE HAFNER: Coming up, Klári's last big computer run.

I'm Katie Hafner and this is Lost Women of Science.

KATIE HAFNER: In the first three Monte Carlo runs, Klári had been working on simulations for weapons that relied on fission, the process we described earlier.

KATIE HAFNER: As the field started to professionalize, Klári's coding work started to taper off.

KATIE HAFNER: Over the year and a half between Johnny's diagnosis and his death, Klári was his unflagging caregiver.

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