Physical Science: After Turing was sent on his sabbatical, he went back to King's College to work on physical science. His topic of interest was the brain. He wanted to understand how the brain made decisions and how the thought process worked. Turing also became interested in Fibonacci numbers and how to understand them. Fibonacci numbers have a sequence where you add the two numbers before it. The beginning of the Fibonacci sequence is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. and the numbers keep getting higher. Biologists and physicists are drawn to Fibonacci numbers because the sequence occurs a lot in nature, like the branching patterns of trees. After Turing was not so interested in the brain anymore, he had a new question he wanted to answer. He wanted to know how living things grow up to be what they become. During this time period, not many people were investigating that field of study, so there were still discoveries to be made. Turing started to study in the field of morphogenesis. Morphogenesis dealt with DNA and how a living organism develops its shape. Turing had trouble finding new and interesting research that would advance that field, because he did not have a lot of time to work. During this point in his life, he ran into trouble. It did not deal with work but with his personal life. |
No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I'm after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. -Alan Turing |