1977 in science

none February 2012 1977 science 1977 The year 1977 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. Astronomy and space exploration March 10 – Rings of Uranus discovered by Kuiper Airborne Observatory measurements of star occultation. August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first test free-flight from the back of a jetliner. August 15 – Ohio State University Radio Observatory, working on the SETI project, receives a strong narrowband radio signal from deep space; the event is named the Wow! signal for a notation made by researcher Jerry R. Ehman. August 20 – Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft to study the outer Solar System. September 5 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay. September 20 – Petrozavodsk phenomenon observed in northern skies. 2060 Chiron, first of the outer Solar System asteroids known as Centaurs, discovered by Charlie Kowal. Discovery of the Carina Dwarf galaxy by the UK Schmidt Telescope. Thorne–Żytkow objects, a bizarre hybrid of red supergiants and neutron stars, are first theorised. Biology The first complete genome is sequenced - a tiny bacterium-infecting virus called Phi X 174, with just 11 genes, and a little over 5000 base pairs.Sequencing technologies http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX059576.html The Human Genome Wellcome Trust 2012-10-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20121109134523/http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX059576.html November 9, 2012 dead mdy-all Carl Woese and George E. Fox classify archaea as a new, separate domain of life.Woese Carl R. Fox George E. Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States 74 11 5088–90 1977 270744 432104 10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088 1977PNAS...74.5088W free U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves LAL (Limulus amebocyte lysate) for testing drugs, products and devices that come in contact with the blood. Prior to this date, a much slower and more expensive test on rabbits has been used for this purpose. October 22 – Nothomyrmecia, the "dinosaur ant", is rediscovered, in Poochera, South Australia, more than 45 years after it is first described. Chemistry Frederick Sanger and colleagues introduce Sanger sequencing.10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463 Sanger F. Nicklen S. Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States 1977 74 12 5463–5467 271968 431765 1977PNAS...74.5463S free Computer science January – The Commodore PET is announced at Winter CES. The first units are delivered to customers in October; back-orders for the popular system last for months and in early 1978 Commodore discontinues the 4KB model. The PET is the launch computer for Commodore which will later gain prominence with the Commodore 64 in 1982, the single most produced home computer with over 17 million produced.http://oldcomputers.net/c64.html Commodore 64 computer June 5 – The first Apple II home computers (largely designed by Steve Wozniak) go on sale in the U.S., among the first successful mass-produced microcomputers.https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/dayintech_0605 June 5, 1977: From a Little Apple a Mighty Industry Grows Wired Tony Long June 5, 2007 June 2, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090528031056/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/dayintech_0605 May 28, 2009 liveReimer Jeremy https://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/4 Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures Ars Technica December 14, 2005 May 25, 2010 August 3 – The TRS-80 Model I is announced at a press conference in New York City. Radio Shack begin sales in September, and despite a sales forecast of only 3,000 units per year, over 10,000 are sold in just one and a half months. Radio Shack will later develop an entire line of computers over the following 20 years. September – The Atari 2600 home video game console is released. Cryptography RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography is described by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman at MIT. History of science Roy Porter publishes The Making of Geology: Earth Science in Britain 1660-1815. Brian Randell and Allen Coombs publish the first detailed information on the 1943 Colossus computer.Brian Randell, "The First Electronic Computer", New Scientist, 10 February 1977; IBM UK News, 4 March 1967; A. W. M. Coombs, "COLOSSUS and the History of Computing: Dollis Hill’s Important Contribution", The Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal 70:2 (July 1977), pp. 108–110. Mathematics November – Graham's number first becomes popularly known.Gardner, Martin Martin Gardner Mathematical Games Scientific American 237 5 18–28 November 1977 subscription http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v237/n5/pdf/scientificamerican1177-18.pdf 10.1038/scientificamerican1177-18 1977SciAm.237e..18G Rev. repr. in: 2001 The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes and Problems 978-0-393-02023-6 Martin Gardner Norton New York Hillel Furstenberg reformulates Szemerédi's theorem according to ergodic theory.Hillel Furstenberg Ergodic behavior of diagonal measures and a theorem of Szemerédi on arithmetic progressions Journal d'Analyse Mathématique 31 204–256 1977 0498471 10.1007/BF02813304 free 120917478 Lajos Szilassi discovers the Szilassi polyhedron. Joel L. Weiner describes a version of the tennis ball theorem.Weiner Joel L. 3 Journal of Differential Geometry 0514446 425–434 Global properties of spherical curves 12 1977 10.4310/jdg/1214434093 free Medicine January 18 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the "Legionnaires' disease". July 3 – Dr Raymond Damadian with Larry Minkoff and Michael Goldsmith perform the first magnetic resonance imaging body scan of a human.Damadian, R. Goldsmith, M. Minkoff, L. 1977 NMR in cancer: XVI. Fonar image of the live human body Physiological Chemistry and Physics 9 1 97–100 909957 Hinshaw, D. S. Bottomley, P. A. Holland, G. N. 1977 Radiographic thin-section image of the human wrist by nuclear magnetic resonance Nature 270 722–723 10.1038/270722a0 5639 1977Natur.270..722H 593393 4183336 First MRI and ultrasound scanning Benjamin S. Beck http://benbeck.co.uk/firsts/scanning.htm 4 December 2011 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20111120221919/http://benbeck.co.uk/firsts/scanning.htm November 20, 2011 The "Indomitable" MRI Smithsonian Institution http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/object_jun00.html?c=y&page=2 4 December 2011 dead https://archive.today/20120909191216/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/object_jun00.html?c=y&page=2 September 9, 2012 September 16 – The first percutaneous coronary intervention on a sentient patient is performed by cardiologist Andreas Gruentzig in Zurich.Biographical Sketch of Andreas Gruentzig (1939–1985) http://www.ptca.org/archive/bios/gruentzig.html Angioplasty.Org November 8, 2011Meier Bernhard Bachmann Dölf Lüscher Thomas F. 25 years of coronary angioplasty: almost a fairy tale http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)12470-1/fulltext The Lancet 361 9356 527 February 8, 2003 12583964 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12470-1 19237951 November 8, 2011 free subscription October 26 – The world's last natural infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.Waldman Thomas A. 2003 http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nm/journal/v9/n3/full/nm0303-269.html&filetype=pdf PDF Immunotherapy: past, present and future Nature Medicine 9 269–277 10.1038/nm0303-269 12612576 3 9745527 10 March 2005 free subscription December 16 – The first microelectronic multi-channel cochlear implant, developed by Ingeborg Hochmair and Erwin Hochmair, is implanted. Oceanography February 7 – Discovery of deep ocean hydrothermal vent ecosystems near the Galapagos Islands. Physics The bottom quark is discovered experimentally by Leon M. Lederman at Fermilab.S.W. Herb 1977 Observation of a Dimuon Resonance at 9.5 GeV in 400-GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions Physical Review Letters 39 252 10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.252 1977PhRvL..39..252H 1155396 5 Hom D. Lederman L. https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1155396 etal subscription Steven Weinberg publishes the first edition of The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe in the United States. Technology August 23 – Gossamer Condor demonstrates that it is the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight by winning the Kremer prize. It was created by Paul MacCready and Peter Lissaman of AeroVironment and piloted by Bryan Allen at Minter Field in Shafter, California. December 1 – Lockheed Have Blue becomes the first stealth aircraft to fly. First general exercise sports bra invented by Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith in the United States. Awards Nobel Prizes Physics – Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck van Vleck Chemistry – Ilya Prigogine Medicine – Roger Guillemin, Andrew V. Schally, Rosalyn Yalow Turing Award – John Backus Births May 3 – Maryam Mirzakhani (d. 2017), Iranian-born mathematician. Deaths February 5 – Oskar Klein (b. 1894), Swedish theoretical physicist. February 15 – Herman Johannes Lam (b. 1892), Dutch botanist. February 16 – Rózsa Péter (b. 1905), Hungarian mathematician, "founding mother of recursive function theory". June 3 – Archibald Hill (b. 1886), English physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. June 16 – Wernher von Braun (b. 1912), German-born American physicist and engineer. December 7 – Peter Carl Goldmark (b. 1906), Hungarian-born American engineer References 30em Category:20th century in science Category:1970s in science