1963 in science

none thumb | right | 11th IUPAP General Conference Warsaw 18-23 September 1963 From right to left: prof. Sosnowski, prof. Natanson, prof. Rubinowicz 1963 science 1963 The year 1963 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. Astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration January 1 – Long-period comet C/1963 A1 (Ikeya) is discovered by a Japanese amateur. January 4 – Soviet Luna reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach the Moon. May 15 – Mercury program: NASA launches the last mission of the program Mercury 9. (On June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb tells Congress the program is complete.) July 26 – Roy Kerr submits for publication his discovery of the Kerr metric, an exact solution to the Einstein field equation of general relativity, predicting a rotating black hole.Kerr R. P. Gravitational field of a spinning mass as an example of algebraically special metrics Physical Review Letters 1963 11 5 237–238 10.1103/PhysRevLett.11.237 1963PhRvL..11..237K October 18 – Aboard the French Véronique AGI 47 sounding rocket, a bicolor cat designated C 341, later known as Félicette, becomes the first cat in space. November 1 – The Arecibo Observatory, with the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, officially opens in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. First definite identification of a radio source, 3C 48, with an optical object, later identified as a quasar, is published by Allan Sandage and Thomas A. Matthews;Matthews Thomas A. Thomas A. Matthews Sandage Allan R. Allan Sandage Optical Identification of 3c 48, 3c 196, and 3c 286 with Stellar Objects 1963 The Astrophysical Journal 138 30–56 1963ApJ...138...30M 10.1086/147615 free also Maarten Schmidt publishes significant observations on 3C 273.Schmidt Maarten 3C 273: a star-like object with large red-shift Nature 1963 197 4872 1040 1963Natur.197.1040S 10.1038/1971040a0 free Biology Geneticist J. B. S. Haldane coins the word "clone". Molecular biologist Emile Zuckerkandl and physical chemist Linus Pauling introduce the term paleogenetics.Pauling L. Zuckerkandl E. 1963 Chemical paleogenetics: molecular restoration studies of extinct forms of life Acta Chemica Scandinavica 17 89 10.3891/acta.chem.scand.17s-0009 free Konrad Lorenz publishes On Aggression (Das sogenannte Böse: Zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression). Niko Tinbergen poses his four questions to be asked of any animal behavior.Tinbergen Niko 1963 On Aims and Methods in Ethology Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 20 4 410–433 http://www.esf.edu/EFB/faculty/documents/Tinbergen1963onethology.pdf 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1963.tb01161.x 2011-03-17 2011-06-09 https://web.archive.org/web/20110609122714/http://www.esf.edu/EFB/faculty/documents/Tinbergen1963onethology.pdf Sydney Brenner proposes the use of Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation primarily of neural development in animals. Cartography Robinson projection devised by Arthur H. Robinson.Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections John P. Snyder 1993 University of Chicago Press 978-0-226-76747-5 Computing Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth sciences September 7 – British geophysicists Fred Vine and Drummond Matthews publish proof of seafloor spreading on the Atlantic Ocean floor.The Hutchinson Factfinder Helicon 1999 978-1-85986-000-710.1038/199947a0 Vine F. J. Matthews D. H. 1963 Magnetic Anomalies Over Oceanic Ridges Nature 199 947–949 4897 1963Natur.199..947V 4296143 November 14 – The Icelandic volcanic island of Surtsey appears above sea level. History of science and technology April 1 – Industrial Monuments Survey for the Ministry of Public Building and Works (Great Britain) commenced by Rex Wailes. Kenneth Hudson's Industrial Archaeology: an introduction published in London. Derek J. de Solla Price's Little Science, Big Science published in New York. Mathematics Paul Cohen uses forcing to prove that the continuum hypothesis and the axiom of choice are independent from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. Walter Feit and John G. Thompson state the Feit–Thompson theorem.Feit Walter Thompson John G. Solvability of groups of odd order http://projecteuclid.org/Dienst/UI/1.0/Journal?authority=euclid.pjm&issue=1103053941 0166261 1963 Pacific Journal of Mathematics 13 3 775–1029 10.2140/pjm.1963.13.775 free Edward Lorenz publishes his discovery of the 'butterfly effect', significant in the development of chaos theory.Lorenz Edward N. Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences March 1963 20 2 130–141 10.1175/1520-0469(1963)020<0130:DNF>2.0.CO;2 1963JAtS...20..130L free Atiyah–Singer index theorem announced by Michael Atiyah and Isadore Singer.Atiyah Michael F. Singer Isadore M. The Index of Elliptic Operators on Compact Manifolds Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 69 422–433 1963 10.1090/S0002-9904-1963-10957-X 3 free Stanisław Ulam devises the Ulam spiral as a graphical depiction of the set of prime numbers.Stein M. L. Ulam S. M. Wells M. B. American Mathematical Monthly 516–20 A Visual Display of Some Properties of the Distribution of Primes 2312588 71 1964 10.2307/2312588 5 Mathematical Association of AmericaGardner M. Martin Gardner March 1964 Scientific American 120–8 Mathematical Games: The Remarkable Lore of the Prime Number 210 10.1038/scientificamerican0364-120 Medicine June – Guy Alexandre performs the first kidney transplantation from a heart-beating, brain-dead donor, at Saint Pierre Hospital, Leuven, Belgium. Thomas Starzl performs the first liver transplantation, at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.Calixto Machado The first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor Neurology 2005 64 1938–42 11 10.1212/01.wnl.0000163515.09793.cb 15955947 219219246 James D. Hardy performs the first lung transplantation. Measles vaccines are introduced commercially.Webb Nicholas HSL Research Guides: Ernst Ludwig Wynder Autograph Collection: John Enders, Ph.D. https://guides.library.nymc.edu/c.php?g=117959&p=767676 guides.library.nymc.edu New York Medical College Health Sciences Library 2021-02-13 In 1963, Pfizer introduced a deactivated measles vaccine, and Merck & Co introduced an attenuated measles vaccine. American endocrinologist Grant Liddle identifies Liddle's syndrome.Grant W. Liddle Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association 1993 Christy Nicholas P. 104 xliii–xlv 2376630 1343432 French pediatrician Jérôme Lejeune first describes cri du chat syndrome.Lejeune, J. 3 Cases of partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 5 fr Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences 257 3098–102 1963 14095841 etal Pentasomy X is first diagnosed. Paleontology The type species of the early dinosaur Herrerasaurus, Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis from the north of Argentina, is described by Osvaldo Reig.Reig O. A. 1963 La presencia de dinosaurios saurisquios en los "Estratos de Ischigualasto" (Mesotriásico Superior) de las provincias de San Juan y La Rioja (República Argentina) Ameghiniana 3 1 3–20 Spanish Physics David H. Frisch and J. H. Smith prove radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion.American Journal of Physics 31: 342-355. (See Einstein's special relativity and general relativity.) Psychology Stanley Milgram publishes the results of his shock experiment on obedience to authority figures.Behavioral Study of Obedience Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67 371–378 14049516 http://content.apa.org/journals/abn/67/4/371 10.1037/h0040525 4 October 1963 Milgram S The term "contrafreeloading" was coined. Technology Lava lamp invented by Edward Craven Walker.Edward Craven Walker British inventor https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Craven-Walker Encyclopædia Britannica 11 March 2019 en Mellotron Mark I electromechanical polyphonic tape replay keyboard, developed and built in Aston, Birmingham, England, is marketed. Don Buchla begins to design an electronic music synthesizer in Berkeley, California. Events November 23 – First episode of science fiction television series Doctor Who broadcast by the BBC in the United Kingdom.Penguin Pocket On This Day Penguin Reference Library 978-0-14-102715-9 2006The Handbook: The First Doctor — The William Hartnell Years 1963–1966 David J. Howe Mark Stammers Stephen James Walker Stephen James Walker Virgin Books London 1994 978-0-426-20430-5 54https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/unearthlychild/detail.shtml An Unearthly Child Doctor Who: The Classic Series BBC 1995–2003 2012-06-08 Awards Nobel Prizes Physics – Eugene Paul Wigner, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, J. Hans D. Jensen Chemistry – Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta Medicine – Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley Births January 4 – May-Britt Moser, Norwegian neuroscientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2014/may-britt-moser/facts/ NobelPrize.org 11 March 2019 February 9 – Brian Greene, American theoretical physicist. February 10 – Vivian Wing-Wah Yam, Hong Kong chemist working on OLEDs March – Jin Li, Chinese geneticist. August 14 – Saiful Islam, Pakistani-born materials chemist. August 30 – Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Polish-born developmental biologist. W. Tecumseh Fitch, American-born evolutionary biologist. Daniel Jackson, English-born American computer scientist. Deaths January 28 – Jean Piccard (born 1884), Swiss-born American chemist and explorer. February 5 – Barnum Brown (born 1873), American paleontologist. April 6 – Otto Struve (born 1897), Russian astronomer. May 11 – Herbert Spencer Gasser (born 1888), American physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. May 19 – Walter Russell (born 1871), American polymath. June 16 – Eleanor Williams (born 1884), Australian bacteriologist and serologist. August 30 – Marietta Pallis (born 1882), British ecologist. October 13 – Alan A. Griffith (born 1893), English stress engineer. October 2 – Olga Lepeshinskaya (born 1871), Soviet Lysenkoist biologist. October 25 – Karl von Terzaghi (born 1883), Austrian "father of soil mechanics". November 13 – Margaret Murray (born 1863), Indian-English anthropologist and author.Kathleen L. Sheppard The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman's Work in Archaeology Lanham Lexington 2013 978-0-73917-417-3 223 References Category:20th century in science Category:1960s in science