Briefly, Bush was among a small group of thinkers who helped the Allies to win the war by creating technologies that did not exist. They include use of microwave radar as the foundation for an early warning system to identify incoming enemy aircraft, a magnetic device for detecting submerged submarines, and the development of mass-destruction weapons following the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939.

Each of the projects that Bush led to success has based on an loonshot idea widely viewed as impossible, if not insane. (The Greek word for atom literally means “uncuttable.”) Much of what Bush helped to accomplish during the war continued to have great impact.

Bahcall: “Since the end of World War II, hundreds of industry-changing, or industry-creating, discoveries originating in the US — including GPS, personal computers, the biotechnology industry, the internet, pacemakers, artificial hearts, magnetic resonance imaging, the chemotherapy cure for childhood leukemia, even the original Google search algorithm — sprang from the system Bush’s report inspired.”