Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about the imaginary device that's the basis for all computers,

and what Godzilla can tell us about our collective anxiety.

We'll also answer a listener question about exoplanets with a special guest

Ralph crew from the podcast Science News and Kews.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

Today would be Alan Turing's 107th birthday.

You may have never heard of Alan Turing,

but you are definitely familiar with his work.

He's the namesake behind the touring machine,

which is a theoretical device that's the basis for all computers. Pretty big deal. And it's also

Pride Month, so let's celebrate by learning about one of history's

under-appreciated LGBT scientists.

Around the time when he was born after the turn of the 20th century

on June 23rd, 1912, a computer referred not to an electronic device but to a person.

From tax documents to scientific calculations, all the math performed up until that point happened with pencil and paper.

But even when they were broken down into their smallest parts, some math problems were too hard

for even the sharpest minds in math.

And that's what led the English mathematician to ponder the question of what it even means for a task to be computable.

On its face, a task is considered computable if you can lay out the instructions or the algorithm

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