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New Research Explodes Myths About Ada Lovelace (ox.ac.uk)
Two mathematics historians investigated the Lovelace-Byron family archives (which are available online) to confirm the early mathematical prowess of Ada Lovelace for two scholarly journals. Slashdot reader bugs2squash shares a post from the Oxford Mathematical Institute:
The work challenges widespread claims that Lovelace's mathematical abilities were more "poetical" than practical, or indeed that her knowledge was so limited that Babbage himself was likely to have been the author of the paper that bears her name. The authors pinpoint Lovelace's keen eye for detail, fascination with big questions, and flair for deep insights, which enabled her to challenge some deep assumptions in her teacher's work. They suggest that her ambition, in time, to do significant mathematical research was entirely credible, though sadly curtailed by her ill-health and early death.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Ada Lovelace died in London at age 36.
Did she die from 'uterine cancer' or was it syphilis? She was a libertine up until nearly the end of her life, then her mother sequestered her away and she died very privately, away from public view, and of course, after repenting from her earlier ways.
Remember when we landed a probe on a comet, and all we heard about was how awful and sexist one guy's shirt was? Double standards are very much in play here.
Female scientist who slept around? A-OK.
Male scientist wearing a shirt? Horrible misogyny!
Meh, kinda irrelevant. Her sister had a brief fling in programming and then went into adult films. Her sister was quite attractive!