1931 in science

none 1931 science 1931 The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. Astronomy French astronomer Bernard Lyot invents the coronagraph. Chemistry November 26 – Harold Urey and associates at Columbia University discover deuterium by the fractional distillation of liquid hydrogen, leading to demonstration of the existence of heavy water.Harold C. Urey F. G. Brickwedde G. M. Murphy A Hydrogen Isotope of Mass 2 Physical Review 1932 39 164–5 http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.39.16 10.1103/PhysRev.39.164 1932PhRv...39..164U 2012-01-08 free Erich Hückel proposes Hückel's rule, which explains when a planar ring molecule will have aromatic properties.Rzepa Henry S. The aromaticity of Pericyclic reaction transition states Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/pericyclic/ 2007-03-26 The first aerogel is created by Steven Kistler.1931 Coherent expanded aerogels and jellies Nature 127 3211 741 1931Natur.127..741K 10.1038/127741a0 Kistler, S. S. 4077344 free1932 Coherent Expanded-Aerogels Journal of Physical Chemistry 36 1 52–64 10.1021/j150331a003 Kistler, S. S.Pajonk G. M. 1991-05-16 Aerogel catalysts https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0166-9834%2891%2985054-Y Applied Catalysis en 72 2 217–266 10.1016/0166-9834(91)85054-Y 0166-9834 subscription https://books.google.com/books?id=exRjDAAAQBAJ&q=kistler+charles+learned&pg=PA41 Cryogenic Heat Transfer 2nd Barron Randall F. Nellis Gregory F. CRC Press 2016 41 9781482227451 live https://web.archive.org/web/20171122171437/https://books.google.com/books?id=exRjDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&dq=kistler+charles+learned&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y 2017-11-22 Earth sciences Modified Mercalli intensity scale introduced as a seismic scale for earthquakes in the United States. History of science Het Nederlandsch Historisch Natuurwetenschappelijk Museum ("The Dutch Historical Museum of the Natural Sciences") opens in Leiden. Mathematics January – Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik. Physics Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll build the first prototype electron microscope. Paul Dirac proposes that the existence of a single magnetic monopole in the universe would suffice to explain the quantization of electrical charge.Dirac, P. A. M. Proceedings of the Royal Society A London 10.1098/rspa.1931.0130 60–72 Quantised Singularities in the Electromagnetic Field 133 821 1931 1931RSPSA.133...60D free Physiology and medicine May–October – American pathologists Ernest William Goodpasture and Alice Miles Woodruff publish their results on growing influenza and several other viruses in fertilised chicken eggs.Woodruff, Alice Miles Goodpasture, Ernest W. The Susceptibility of the Chorio-Allantoic Membrane of Chick Embryos to Infection with the Fowl-Pox Virus The American Journal of Pathology 7 3 209–222 May 1931 2062632 19969963Goodpasture E. W. Woodruff Alice M. Buddingh G. J. The Cultivation of Vaccine and Other Viruses in the Chorioallantoic Membrane of Chick Embryos Science 9 October 1931 74 1919 371–372 10.1126/science.74.1919.371 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.74.1919.371 en 0036-8075 subscription Richard Shope publishes three papers identifying influenza A virus as the cause of swine influenza.Knobler, S. Mack, A. Mahmoud, A. Lemon, S. The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? Workshop Summary 1: The Story of Influenza 60–61 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11150&page=61 The National Academies Press Washington, D.C. 10.17226/11150 20669448 2005 978-0-309-09504-4 Institute of Medicine (US) Forum on Microbial ThreatsTaubenberger, J. K. Hultin, J. V. Morens, D. M. 2007 Discovery and characterization of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus in historical context Antiviral Therapy 12 4B 581–591 2391305 17944266 December 3 – The drug Alka-Seltzer is placed on the market. Adolf Butenandt discovers androsterone. John Haven Emerson and August Krogh introduce new forms of negative pressure ventilator. The first electroencephalography is performed by Hans Berger in Germany. Lucy Wills, working in India, demonstrates that anemia in pregnancy can be reversed using brewer's yeast.Wills L. 1931 Treatment of 'pernicious anaemia' of pregnancy and 'tropical anaemia', with special reference to yeast extract as a curative agent British Medical Journal 1 3676 1059–64 10.1136/bmj.1.3676.1059 20776230 2314785 Technology May 27 – Swiss-born scientist Auguste Piccard and his assistant, engineer Paul Kipfer, taking off from Augsburg, Germany, reach a record altitude of 15,785 m ft 0 on in a balloon with a pressurized gondola, gathering data on the upper atmosphere and measuring cosmic rays, the first human flight into the stratosphere. October 5 – American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41½ hours.Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/aviation/pan.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20071123025521/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/pan.htm dead November 23, 2007 Aviation: From Sand Dunes To Sonic Booms National Park Service 2012-05-31 October 24 – The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River in the United States is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day. At 3500 ft m, it nearly doubles the previous record for the longest suspension span in the world. November 19 – David Gottlieb introduces his Baffle Ball machine in the United States, the first commercially successful pinball table.2014-01-21 The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, NV - Episode 209 http://www.travelthruhistory.tv/pinball-hall-fame-las-vegas-nv-episode-209/ 2024-01-30 Travel Thru History en-US December 14 – British electronics engineer Alan Blumlein of EMI submits a UK patent application for "Improvements in and relating to Sound-transmission, Sound-recording and Sound-reproducing Systems" – binaural or stereophonic sound. László Bíró first exhibits his ballpoint pen, in Budapest. George Beauchamp invents the electric guitar.Millard, André 2004 The Electric Guitar: a History of an American Icon Baltimore The Johns Hopkins University Press 0-8018-7862-4 John H. Sharp of Chicago files the first patent for a torque wrench. Construction of the Hoover Dam begins on the Colorado River in the United States (chief designing engineer: John L. Savage). Other events January 3 – Albert Einstein begins doing research at the California Institute of Technology, along with astronomer Edwin Hubble. In October the Caltech Department of Physics faculty and graduate students meet with Einstein as a guest. November 21 – Release of James Whale's film of Frankenstein in New York, with electrical effects designed by Kenneth Strickfaden. Awards Nobel Prizes Chemistry – Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius Medicine – Otto Heinrich Warburg Births January 20 – David Lee, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. January 28 – Chen Xingbi (died 2019), Chinese electronics engineer. February 10 – Carl Rettenmeyer (died 2009), American biologist specialising in army ants. March 22 – Burton Richter (died 2018), American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. March 25 – John A. Eddy (died 2009), American astronomer. May 25 – Georgy Grechko (died 2017), Soviet Russian cosmonaut. May 31 – John Robert Schrieffer (died 2019), American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. June 27 David Mervyn Blow (died 2004), English biophysicist. Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. August 8 – Roger Penrose, English mathematical physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. August 15 – Richard F. Heck (died 2015), American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. August 20 – Ayhan Ulubelen, Turkish natural product chemist. August 23 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. August 30 – Jack Swigert (died 1982), American astronaut. September 10 – Idelisa Bonnelly, Dominican marine biologist. September 21 – Syukuro Manabe, Japanese-born climatologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. September 27 – W. Maxwell Cowan (died 2002), South African neuroanatomist. September 29 – James Watson Cronin (died 2016), American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. October 1 – Emory Kemp (died 2020), American civil engineering historian. October 6 – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. October 9 – Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer (died 2004), South African acarologist. October 12 – Ole-Johan Dahl (died 2002), Norwegian computer scientist, pioneer of object-oriented programming. October 15 – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (died 2015), President of India and rocket scientist. October 25 – Klaus Hasselmann, German climatologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. November 28 – Gurdev Singh Gill (died 2023), Indian-born Canadian physician. December 30 – John T. Houghton (died 2020), British climate scientist. Deaths January 1 – Martinus Beijerinck (born 1851), Dutch microbiologist and botanist. February 2 – Frederick Marten Hale (born 1864), British explosives engineer. February 3 – Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate (born 1858), Dutch anthropologist. February 11 – Sir Charles Parsons (born 1854), British inventor of the steam turbine. February 24 – Fanny Gates (born 1872), American physicistFanny Cook Gates http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Gates,_Fanny_Cook@842511724.html cwp.library.ucla.edu February 26 – Otto Wallach (born 1847), German chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. May 9 – Albert A. Michelson (born 1852), Polish American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. May 23 – Aldred Scott Warthin (born 1867), American cancer geneticist. July 6 – Edward Goodrich Acheson (born 1856), American industrial chemist. September 20 – Joan Beauchamp Procter (born 1897), English herpetologist. October 8 – General Sir John Monash (born 1865), Australian civil engineer. October 17 – Alfons Maria Jakob (born 1884), German neuropathologist. October 18 – Thomas Edison (born 1847), American inventor. November 27 – Sir David Bruce (born 1855), Scottish microbiologist. References Category:20th century in science Category:1930s in science