The Cryotron Files

Book excerpt: The “fascinating [and] informative” biography of a pioneering American computer scientist and his mysterious death during the Cold War (The Scotsman, UK). MIT professor Dudley Allen Buck was a brilliant young scientist on the cusp of fame and fortune when he died of mysterious causes in 1959. His latest invention, the Cryotron, was an early form of microchip that would have greatly advance ballistic missile technology. Shortly before Dudley’s death, he was visited by a group of Soviet computer experts. On the day that he died from a sudden bout of pneumonia, a close colleague of his was also found dead from similar causes. Some wonder if their deaths were linked. Dudley’s son Douglas was never satisfied with the explanation of his father’s death. He’s spent more than twenty years investigating it, acquiring his father’s lab books, diaries, correspondence, research papers and patent filings. Armed with this research, Douglas and award-winning journalist Iain Dey tell the story of Dudley’s life and groundbreaking work. The Cryotron Files is at once a gripping history of America’s Cold War era computer scientists, the dramatic personal story of Dudley Buck, and an eye-opening investigation into his mysterious death.