Turing at 100 : Nature : Nature Research

Come the summer, many minds will turn to sport as the London Olympics kicks off. So it seems apt that, in a special issue this week, Nature invites its readers to embrace and celebrate a superb marathon runner -- who also happened to be one of the brightest minds of all time. Alan Turing, computer pioneer, wartime code-breaker and polymath, was born in London on 23 June 1912. But for injury, he would probably have joined the British Olympic team for the London games of 1948. Yet, 100 years and one month after his birth, when the Olympics will return to the city, no official celebration of the connection is planned.