Decoding Genius: Top 13 Fun and Fascinating Facts About Alan Turing You Never Knew!

1. Teacup-Throwing Codebreakers

Before the phrase "spilling the tea" was even a thing, Bletchley Park codebreakers were way ahead of their time, engaging in their own version of tea-related chaos: These cryptanalysts were notorious for randomly chucking their tea cups into the estate's ornamental lake. This mischievous habit led to a post-war dredging operation uncovering an underwater trove of discarded crockery, causing the authorities to issue a memo condemning the behavior and urging staff to provide their own tea cups.
Source => atlasobscura.com

2. Apple Logo's Tribute to Turing

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but in the case of Alan Turing, it seems his apples got an upgrade: The Apple Inc. logo wasn't actually inspired by Turing's favorite fruit, but designer Rob Janoff cleverly included a "byte" taken out of the apple as a nod to the computing pioneer. Janoff's multicolored stripes on early versions of the logo symbolized the color bars displayed on the Apple II, the first PC with color imaging capabilities.
Source => mentalfloss.com

Did you know Marie Curie's cookbooks and personal belongings are still radioactive after 100 years? Even her manuscripts require protective clothing to access! Discover more fascinating facts about this famous scientist.

=> Fun Facts about Marie-Curie

3. Turing's Chained Tea Mug

In a world where teacup thieves lurked around every corner and one genius had the perfect crime-fighting strategy: Alan Turing, master of code-cracking and computer science, proudly secured his cherished tea mug to the radiator with a chain, lest it fall into enemy hands. But Mr. Turing's talents weren't only limited to devising anti-theft mechanisms for his daily dose of warmth; this long-distance running aficionado would sprint his way into history by breaking the German Enigma Code at Bletchley Park during the heart of World War II.
Source => origoeducation.com

4. Turing's WWII Bomb(e) Assistant

Not to be outdone by Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, Alan Turing had his very own bomb(e) assistant during World War II: The bombe machine, which he helped design, was pivotal in cracking the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park, providing vital intelligence to the Allies and potentially shortening the war in Europe by up to four years—thus saving millions of lives.
Source => bbc.com

5. Turing's Double Life

From "code breaker" to living a "double life": Alan Turing, the mastermind behind the Turing Test, was a secret agent in his own right as an unstoppable force against Nazi codes. However, despite his heroism, Turing faced a personal battle when he was convicted of homosexuality – then a crime – in 1952. The punishment? Chemical castration. Sadly, the story ends with his untimely death by suicide just two years later. Fortunately, Turing's legacy was granted a semblance of justice when, in 2009, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a public apology for the mistreatment Turing faced and later, in 2013, when Queen Elizabeth II granted him a well-deserved posthumous pardon.
Source => techtarget.com

6. Turing's Jukebox-Inspired Bombe

Eureka! Alan Turing and his secret band of code-cracking Avengers assembled their jazzy equivalent of a wartime jukebox - a party favorite known as the bombe: In reality, this wee gadget tirelessly churned through 159 billion billion encryption schemes, ultimately cracking the Nazi Enigma code, thus putting the kibosh on the war and possibly saving the planet from years of devastation. Now that's a heroic dance-off for the ages!
Source => newscientist.com

7. Turing, the Marathon Man

Who needs a treadmill when you can outrun Olympians in your spare time? That's right, the brilliant mathematician, Alan Turing, was also an exceptional marathon man: Sporting a personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, 3 seconds, Turing was just 11 minutes behind the winner of the 1948 Olympic Games and even vanquished future Olympic silver-medalist Tom Richards in a cross-country race. With running as a stress-reliever, Turing's athletic prowess was, however, ultimately fizzled out by the disastrous estrogen injections he underwent as a 'cure' for his homosexuality.
Source => growingbolder.com

8. Turing's Crossword Computer Program

When he wasn't busy saving the world during World War II, you could find Alan Turing cracking cryptic codes of another kind: crosswords! Unlike your grandpa, though, Turing took his love for these puzzles one step further: he created the world's first computer program to play the game, merging his passion and profession in the nerdiest way possible.
Source => theguardian.com

9. The Universal Turing Machine Epiphany

Picture this: Alan Turing, munching on a sandwich, suddenly had an epiphany that changed the world of computing forever – or did he? The lunch-break story might be a myth, but: Turing's creation of the universal Turing machine in 1936 laid the foundation for the modern-day computer, capable of simulating any other Turing machine and solving an infinite number of problems.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

10. Music-Generating Mark II Computer

Just before Elvis left the building, the melody maestros at the National Computing Laboratory decided to rock n' roll with a different kind of beat: Alan Turing's Mark II computer, in 1951, became the world's first-ever music producer by generating tunes such as God Save the Queen and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Thanks to the mind-blowing sleuthing of New Zealand's University of Canterbury researchers, the original synthesized sounds have been restored, providing us an authentic glimpse into the groovy beginnings of computer-generated jams.
Source => wired.co.uk

11. Ocean-Saving Code-Cracker

Ahoy, matey! You might want to grab your life jackets and maritime emergency flares, as we dive into Alan Turing's ocean saving escapades during the perilous seas of World War II: Thanks to his code-cracking genius, convoys of lifesaving supplies dodged lurking U-boats in the North Atlantic, averting Britain's hunger games and bolstering the Allied forces' war efforts. Turing's waves of brilliance are estimated to have trimmed the war in Europe, sailing millions of lives safely to the shores of peace.
Source => bbc.com

12. Running Encryption Record Breaker

Who needs a treadmill when you've got a war to decrypt? Alan Turing, the man who helped crack the uncrackable: he was a code-breaking, marathon-running mathematician with a best time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 3 seconds, just shy of the 1948 Olympic Games winner by a mere 11 minutes! Turing's pavement-pounding prowess was more than a quirky pastime, as he saw it as a vital stress-reliever from his high-stakes World War II duties.
Source => growingbolder.com

13. Turing: Code-Cracker & Cold One Cracker

Before cracking open a cold one, Alan Turing was cracking Nazi codes: Turing played a crucial role in deciphering German military communications at Bletchley Park during World War II, ultimately shortening the war by several years and saving a multitude of lives.
Source => iwm.org.uk