How Turing helped me to crack cancer code
A teenage science prodigy who fought homophobic abuse to invent a groundbreaking cancer test at the age of 15 said he was inspired by the Enigma codebreaker Alan Turing.
Jack Andraka, now 18, said he had taken strength from Bletchley Park scientist Turing who was forced to undergo hormonal treatment to avoid prison for being gay in the 1950s.
Andraka’s new book ‘Breakthrough’ (**) details his struggles to deal with bullying and humiliation at the hands of teachers and peers after coming out while at high school in Baltimore.
Speaking ahead of his appearance at the Hay Festival, Andraka said Turing had helped him to believe that he had a place in the science world.
“The only gay scientist I had heard of was Alan Turing and he was definitely an inspiration for me," he said.
“It was definitely off-putting to find out how unfriendly the science world was towards gay people. I am hoping that things will change in the next few years.
"I went to a conservative school and when I came out as gay I was openly discriminated against by the teachers in front of the class. They would make snide comments and humiliate me.
“It was worrying what happened to Alan Turing, and the science world is definitely still very heterosexual. But I am hoping that will change in the next few years.”
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1162152 ... -code.html
** Breakthrough - published March 2015
http://www.harpercollins.com/childrens/breakthrough