Re: Re: Article on women and mathematics

[Erich Schubert <erich@debian.org>]

Hi Enrico,

> has a section "Prosecution for homosexuality and Turing's death", which
> is quite a sad and upsetting story.

Yep, but typical for mathematicians: many bright mathematicians die
early... its like, if you are 30, you cannot expect to make any great
discoveries any more, but at least you survive... :-)

For example Evariste Galois (apparently "straight", died at 20):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois
Or Bernhard Riemann (died at 40):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Riemann
Or Ferdinand Eisenstein (died at 29)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Eisenstein
Niels Abel (died at 27)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Henrik_Abel

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Byron
> 
> is something you probably forgot to mention about early programmers ;)

Yep, I'm currently reading "the difference engine" by William Gibson and
Bruce Sterling. Nice book, at least the chapters I have read.
Interesting setting: what if the electronics didn't arrive, but we used
steam engines much more? Computers are called "engines" there, and Ada
Byron is "Lady Ada Byron, the Queen of Engines"
I'm not sure where the story will lead to... but I can't wait to
continue reading, although I already sleep way to little and have too
much work to do.

Greetings,
Erich