This is the first biography of William Shockley, founding father of Silicon Valley - one of the most significant and reviled scientists of the 20th century. Drawing upon unique access to the private Shockley archives, veteran technology historian and journalist Joel Shurkin gives an unflinching account of how such promise ended in such ignominy.

Autorentext
JOEL N. SHURKIN is Science Writer Emeritus at Stanford University, USA, where he has written and taught for many years. He covered the moon landings for Reuters, served ten years as Science Writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and was on the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for covering Three Mile Island, among many other awards. He has written nine books including Terman's Kids (Little, Brown) about the study of gifted students, Invisible Fire, on the eradication of smallpox, a science-fiction novel called The Helix (Norton) and most recently A Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy (OUP). His definitive history of the computer, Engines of the Mind (Norton), is in multiple editions in several languages.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements PART I Nevada England California Physics and M.I.T. "Highly Explosive Character" World War 2 PART II "The Magic Month" "We Better Call Shockley" "There's Enough Glory in This for Everyone" "....To Do My Climbing by Moonlight and Unroped" "Well-equipped Female with Brains" "Really Peculiar Ideas about How to Motivate People" PART III "Three Generations of Imbeciles is Enough" "What Law of Nature Have You Discovered?" "Someday We May Actually Be Very Alone" "The High Cost of Thinking the Unthinkable" "I love you" Bibliography