1932 in science

none 1932 science 1932 The year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. Astronomy and space sciences August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie, Missouri. Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud (the Öpik–Oort cloud) at the outermost edge of the Solar System.E. Öpik Note on Stellar Perturbations of Nearly Parabolic Orbits Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 67 6 169–183 10.2307/20022899 20022899 October 1932 1932PAAAS..67..169O Biology English geneticist C. D. Darlington publishes Recent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics of chromosomal crossoverBenirschke K. The Man Who Invented the Chromosome: A Life of Cyril Darlington 10.1093/jhered/esh080 Journal of Heredity 95 6 541–542 2004 free and its role in evolutionary science. English geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution, unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science. American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon publishes The Wisdom of the Body, developing and popularising the concept of homeostasis. A flock of Soay sheep is translocated from Soay to Hirta (also in the depopulated archipelago of St Kilda, Scotland) by conservationist John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute. The heath hen becomes extinct in North America. Earth sciences Braggite is first described, the first mineral discovered with the assistance of X rays.http://www.mindat.org/min-751.html Braggite Mindat.org 2011-08-18http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/braggite.pdf Braggite Handbook of Mineralogy 2001–2005 Mineral Data Publishing 2011-08-18 2024-07-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20240722195541/https://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/braggite.pdf dead Mathematics Menger-Nöbeling theorem. John von Neumann makes foundational contributions to ergodic theory in a series of papers.John von Neumann Proof of the Quasi-ergodic Hypothesis 1932 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 18 70–82 10.1073/pnas.18.1.70 16577432 1 1076162 1932PNAS...18...70N freeJohn von Neumann Physical Applications of the Ergodic Hypothesis 1932 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 18 263–266 10.1073/pnas.18.3.263 16587674 3 1076204 86260 1932PNAS...18..263N freePaul Halmos if von Neumann had never done anything else, they would have been sufficient to guarantee him mathematical immortality. Von Neumann on Measure and Ergodic Theory Paul R. Halmos Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 64 3 1958 86–94 10.1090/s0002-9904-1958-10203-7 free https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-mathematical-society/volume-64/issue-3.P2/Von-Neumann-on-measure-and-ergodic-theory/bams/1183522373.pdf Rózsa Péter presents the results of her paper on recursive function theory, "Rekursive Funktionen," to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich, Switzerland. December – Marian Rejewski of the Polish Biuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics – permutation group theory – to breaking the German armed forces' Enigma machine ciphers.David Kahn (writer) David Kahn The Codebreakers 2nd 1996 974Kozaczuk Władysław Władysław Kozaczuk 1984 Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher was Broken, and how it was Read by the Allies in World War Two Frederick, Md University Publications of America 978-0-89093-547-7 234–236 Medicine January 5 – The pathology of Cushing's syndrome is first described by Harvey Cushing.Harvey Cushing The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body and their clinical manifestations (pituitary basophilism) Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 50 137–95 1932 Reprinted in Cushing Harvey The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England April 1969 44 4 180–1 19310569 2387613Dr. Cushing Dead; Brain Surgeon, 70. A Pioneer Who Won Fame as Founder of New School of Neuro-Surgery. Discovered Malady Affecting Pituitary Gland. Was Noted Teacher and Author https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/08/archives/drcushing-dead-brain-surgeon-70-a-pioneer-who-won-fame-as-founder.html The New York Times 8 October 1939 2010-03-21 American gastroenterologist Burrill Bernard Crohn and colleagues describe a series of patients with "regional ileitis", inflammation of the terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known as Crohn's disease.Crohn B. B. Ginzburg L. Oppenheimer G. D. Regional ileitis: a pathologic and clinical entity, 1932 Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine 67 3 263–8 2000 10828911 Grace Medes discovers tyrosinosis, the metabolic disorder later known as Type I tyrosinemia. Swedish neurosurgeon Herbert Olivecrona performs the first surgical excision of an intracranial arteriovenous malformation. Rudolph Schindler introduces the first semi-flexible gastroscope, in Germany.Schäfer P. K. Sauerbruch T. Rudolf Schindler (1888–1968) – 'Vater' der Gastroskopie Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie 42 6 550–6 2004 10.1055/s-2004-813178 15190453February 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Commencement of the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor African-American sharecroppers in Alabama without their informed consent.https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm The Tuskegee Timeline Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2011-06-15 2011-09-30 First published use of the term Medical genetics, in an article by Madge Thurlow Macklin.Peter S. Harper A Short History of Medical Genetics Oxford University Press 2008 978-0-19-518750-2 281 Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus Pharmacology Albert Szent-Györgyi and Charles Glen King identify ascorbic acid as an anti-scorbutic. December 25 – IG Farben file a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide drug, Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730; which will be marketed as Prontosil), following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic at the conglomerate's Bayer laboratories.Lesch J. E. The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs Transformed Medicine Prontosil 51–61 New York Oxford University Press 2007 978-0-19-518775-5 Physics April 14 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, utilising a Cockcroft–Walton generator at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge (England), focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.Cockcroft John Walton Ernest April 1932 Disintegration of Lithium by Swift Protons https://www.nature.com/articles/129649a0 Nature 129 649 649 10.1038/129649a0 1932Natur.129..649CHartcup Guy Allibone T. E. Thomas Allibone Cockcroft and the Atom Bristol Hilger 1984 978-0-85274-759-9 12666364 May – Radio Luxembourg begins high-powered longwave test transmissions aimed directly at the British Isles which prove, inadvertently, to be the first radio modification of the ionosphere.https://sites.google.com/alaska.edu/gakonahaarpoon/operations-news Operations News Gakona HAARPoon Alaska 2017-02-19 2022-11-16 May 10 – James Chadwick, working at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, reports the existence of the neutron.J. Chadwick Possible Existence of a Neutron Nature 129 312 1932-02-27 3252 10.1038/129312a0 1932Natur.129Q.312C freeThe Existence of the Neutron https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1932.0112 J. Chadwick Proceedings of the Royal Society A136 830 1932-06-01 692–708 10.1098/rspa.1932.0112 free 1932RSPSA.136..692C 2025-06-15 Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept of isospin.W. Heisenberg 1932 Über den Bau der Atomkerne Zeitschrift für Physik 77 1–2 1–11 10.1007/BF01342433 1932ZPhy...77....1H 186218053 August 2 – The positron is observed by Carl Anderson.Carl D. Anderson 1932 The Apparent Existence of Easily Deflectable Positives 1658257 Science 76 1967 238–9 10.1126/science.76.1967.238 17731542 1932Sci....76..238A November 1 – The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment is published, showing that measured time as well as length is affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of special relativity.Kennedy Roy J. Thorndike Edward M. 1932 Experimental Establishment of the Relativity of Time Physical Review 42 3 400–418 10.1103/PhysRev.42.400 1932PhRv...42..400K John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics in Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik. Zero-length springs are invented, revolutionizing seismometers and gravimeters. Awards Nobel Prizes Physics – Werner Karl Heisenberg Chemistry – Irving Langmuir Medicine – Sir Charles Sherrington, Edgar Adrian Births January 16 – Dian Fossey (murdered 1985), American primatologist. February 7 – Alfred Worden (died 2020), American astronaut. February 10 – Robert Taylor (died 2017), American computer scientist. March 10 – Udupi Ramachandra Rao (died 2017), Indian space scientist. March 14 – Joseph Bryan Nelson (died 2015), British ornithologist. March 15 – Alan Bean (died 2018), American astronaut. March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist and Nobel laureate March 24 – Lodewijk van den Berg (died 2022), Dutch-born American chemical engineer and astronaut April 26 – Michael Smith (died 2000), English-born biochemist, recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. May 22 – Robert Spitzer (died 2015), American psychiatrist. July 10 – Ioan Pușcaș (died 2015), Romanian gastroenterologist. July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher of the mind and language. August 4 – Frances E. Allen (died 2020), American computer scientist, Turing Award winner. August 15 – Robert L. Forward (died 2002), American science fiction author and physicist. August 18 – Luc Montagnier (died 2022), French virologist and joint recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). September 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov (died 2002), Russian cosmonaut. September 29 – Rainer Weiss, German-born American physicist, joint recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for detection of gravitational waves. October 1 – Biswa Ranjan Nag (died 2004), Indian physicist. October 3 – Terence English, South African-born cardiac surgeon. October 13 – John G. Thompson, American mathematician. November 6 – François Englert, Belgian theoretical physicist, joint recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the Higgs mechanism. December 15 – John Meurig Thomas (died 2020), Welsh physical chemist. Deaths February 29 – George Claridge Druce (born 1850), English botanist. March 14 – George Eastman (born 1854), American photography pioneer (suicide). April 3 – Wilhelm Ostwald (born 1853), Baltic German chemist. April 20 – Giuseppe Peano (born 1858), Italian mathematician. May 29 – Cuthbert Christy (born 1863), English medical investigator, zoologist and explorer. June 21 – Major Taylor (born 1878), African American racing cyclist. July 9 – King Camp Gillette (born 1855), American inventor. July 14 – Fran Jesenko (born 1875), Slovene botanist and plant geneticist. July 22 – Reginald Fessenden (born 1866), Canadian American radio broadcasting pioneer. August 9 – John Charles Fields (born 1863), Canadian mathematician. September 16 – Sir Ronald Ross (born 1857), British physiologist. November 12 – Sir Dugald Clerk (born 1854), Scottish-born mechanical engineer. References Category:20th century in science Category:1930s in science