The Code Book : The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking

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Since the beginning of civilization, man has always had the urge—to both maintain secrets and uncover mysteries. Simon Singh brings forth in The Code Book: The Secret History Of Codes And Code-Breaking, astonishing stories of puzzles, riddles, ciphers, and codes beginning with the secrets of Ancient Egypt to the invention of the enigma machine used in the second world war for encryption and decryption of secret messages. He discusses various important events that occurred throughout history that are germane to codes. Mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, old lost languages that if decoded could lead to arcane treasures, the invention of utmost importance by Charles Babbage, and the development of latest encryption techniques based on laws of quantum cryptography, and modern computing methods are some of the topics covered. The book announced a contest called “Cipher Challenge” worth a cash prize of £10,000. Simon Singh was born in 1964, grew up in Wellington, and graduated from Imperial College, London, with a degree in Physics. He also did his PhD at Emmanuel College in particle physics, followed by studies in Cambridge, and finally at CERN, Geneva. In 1990, he became the producer and director of programmes on BBC for its Science and Features Department. He directed a documentary about the world's greatest mathematical problem called ‘Fermat's Last Theorem’, which won the BAFTA award. It became the subject of his first book, Fermat's Last Theorem. Following this, Simon also wrote, Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, and Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. Singh is a trustee of the National Museum of Science and Industry.