They improved the lives of millions of people who looked at my friend and saw no more than a clerkish fellow in a bow tie. Today my wife handed me a magazine about new technology. Maybe there was a story I could use. It was frustrating. Here's an article about a topologist at Bell Labs.
Communication systems pose problems like that of fitting spheres into a box.
We see lovely pictures of stacked spheres and strangely sliced pies. But the math is too intricate. The pictures are too complex. I cannot tell it on the radio, so I turn the page. Another designer makes robots for space vehicles.