University of North Texas

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes’ newest book is a biography of Hedy Lamarr, who is known for her glamorous film roles in the 1940s. What frequently used item did she help invent?

A. The material used in Spanx shapewear.

B. Frequency-hopping radio technology used in electronic devices.

C. Botox

D. Diet Coke

The answer is B. Lamarr helped create the radio technology that helped point the way toward remote controls, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones and the global positioning system.

Rhodes' book is Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

• Find a CBS Sunday Morning segment about Lamarr featuring Rhodes.

Rhodes will speak July 21 at the will speak at the 8^th annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.

Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award for The Making of the Atomic Bomb – a narrative that shocked even scientists by making one of the world’s most complex and mysterious quests accessible to the proverbial lay reader.

He is an associate of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation.

The annual conference is sponsored by the Mayborn School of Journalism. Writers, editors, agents and storytellers attend to share ideas, learn from successful writers and earn prizes.

• Learn more, register online.
  

Enter to win a UNT-branded shopping bag and water bottle by sending an email to InHouse with “Mayborn” in the subject line by 5 p.m. June 15. Winners will be selected at random from all responses.

(Image courtesy of Doubleday, USA.)