What do Hedy Lamarr, composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes's caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Hedy Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II. She brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam-proof radio guidance system for torpedoes--the unlikely duo's gift to the U.S. war effort.
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