I recently finished reading “Hedy’s Folly” by the scholar Richard Rhodes. In it he discusses the “most beautiful woman in the world,” 1930s and ‘40s superstar Hedy Lamarr. With her composer friend George Antheil, she invented frequency hopping.

Frequency hopping (or spread spectrum) is a technology that underlies the communication transport and security of almost every wireless device we value today, including GPS, cellphones, Bluetooth, satellites, and home wireless networks.

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