MAKE: MAVERICK SCIENTIST

Maverick Scientist is the memoir of Forrest Mims who forged a distinguished scientific career despite having no academic training in science Named one of the 50 Best Brains in Science by Discover magazine Forrest shares what sparked his childhood curiosity and relates a lifetime of improbable dramatic and occasionally outright dangerous experiences in the world of science At thirteen he invented a new method of rocket control At seventeen he designed and built an analog computer that could translate Russian into English and that the Smithsonian collected as an example of an early hobby computer While majoring in government at Texas A&M University Forrest created a hand held radar like device to help guide the blind And during his military service he had to be given special clearance to do top secret laser research at the Air Force Weapons Lab Why Because while he lacked the required engineering degree they wanted his outside the box thinking on the project He went on to co found MITS Inc producer of the first commercially successful personal computer wrote a series of electronics books for Radio Shack that sold more than seven million copies and designed the music synthesizer circuit that became known as the infamous Atari Punk Console All this