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Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

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ought otherwise unattainable power<br />

and efficiency to the research process.<br />

There was no reason to think that they<br />

wouldn’t continue to poach more tasks<br />

that were currently completed by hand.<br />

Evolution occurred in scientific progress<br />

as it happened in nature: a positive trait<br />

was passed along, then proliferated;<br />

obsolete characteristics withered away,<br />

and the technology and the organization<br />

evolved into something new. Propeller<br />

research, for example, had been one of<br />

Langley’s most important lines of inquiry<br />

from its inception through the lead-up to<br />

the war. By 1951, the Propeller Research<br />

Tunnel was declared obsolete and<br />

demolished, and the engineers that had<br />

staffed it were left to find a new<br />

specialty or retire.

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