Mathematician Claude Shannon is widely regarded as a foundational figure in information theory. His most important paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” published in 1948 when he was employed at Bell Labs, utilized a concept called a “binary digit” (shortened to “bit”) to measure the amount of information in any signal and determine the fastest rate at which information could be transmitted while still being reliably decipherable. Robert Gallagher, one of Shannon’s colleagues, said that the bit was “[Shannon’s] discovery, and from it the whole communications revolution has sprung.”