Though Hedy Lamarr is best known for her work as a Hollywood acting star of the 1930s and 1940s, she also devised a radio technology that was ahead of its time and will continue to play a role in the development of telecommunications: frequency shifting. Born into a wealthy Viennese banking family in 1913, Lamarr was born Hedwig Kiesler. As a young woman, Lamarr appeared in a Czech movie Ecstasy, which caught the attention of one Fritz Mandel, an Austrian arms dealer. Mandel married the 19-year-old, and Lamarr received a thorough education in arms and military technology at an endless stream of business dinners. One topic of conversation that intrigued her involved guiding radio signals while protecting them from enemy interference. She left Mandel in 1937, in part because her husband began to become more and more involved with Nazi Germany, and escaped to London, then Hollywood, where her film...