Ada Byron Lovelace

"Mother, I need something for the pain. Why have you stopped the morphine and opium?"

"Dear, the pain will cleanse your soul," Lady Byron said, a strained smile on her face.₁

What strange times the first computer programmer lived and died in...

Before dying of cancer, at the age of 36, Ada Byron Lovelace became the first computer programmer. Not only did she work without a "debug" utility, but she tested her programs without computers...they hadn't been built yet.
	What was the attitude of the time, toward women and science and math? As Pappas writes, "such fields as mathematics were considered harmful to a woman's health because it would tax her fragile brain." ₁ While this view may not be widely held today, it's influence can still be felt. A personal example: my grandmother asked me if my work with computers would be "bad for the baby" while I'm pregnant. It may seem silly, but some ideas die hard.

	References: 1.Mathematical Scandals Theoni Pappas, Wide World Publishing/Tetra, San Carlos, CA. 1997.

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