1955 in science

none 1955 science 1955 The year 1955 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below. Astronomy and space sciences January 8 – Penumbral lunar eclipse. June Fred Hoyle and Martin Schwarzschild describe the mechanism for the creation of red giant stars.On the Evolution of Type II Stars Hoyle F. Schwarzschild M. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 2 1–40 1955 10.1086/190015 1955ApJS....2....1HHoyle & Schwarzschild's Analysis of the Evolution of Population II Stars Burbidge E. Margaret The Astrophysical Journal 525C 639 1999 1999ApJ...525C.639B The first evidence for existence of a magnetosphere of Jupiter, a record of decametric radio emission (DAM) with a spectrum extending up to 40 MHz, is published.Burke B. F. Franklin K. L. Observations of a variable radio source associated with the planet Jupiter 1955 60 2 213–217 10.1029/JZ060i002p00213 1955JGR....60..213B Journal of Geophysical Research June 5 – Penumbral lunar eclipse. June 20 – Total solar eclipse of 7 min 8 sec duration, the longest between the 11th and 22nd centuries, visible in Southeast Asia. During the entire Second Millennium, only seven such eclipses exceed seven minutes of totality. August – The United States Department of Defense approves Project Vanguard to launch a satellite.Popular Mechanics Stand By Satellite For Take OffP https://books.google.com/books?id=DOEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65 July 1957 Hearst Magazines 65–69, 216 November 29 – Partial lunar eclipse. December 14 – Annular solar eclipse. Jan Oort confirms that polarized light from the Crab Nebula is produced by synchrotron radiation."1955". Houghton Mifflin Guide to Science & Technology. Biochemistry February 26 – Rosalind Franklin publishes her observation that tobacco mosaic virus rods are all of identical length.1955 Franklin Rosalind E. Structure of Tobacco Mosaic Virus 14356181 Nature 175 4452 379–381 10.1038/175379a0 1955Natur.175..379F 1109700 December 22 – Cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio working with Albert Levan at Lund University demonstrates that there are forty-six human chromosomes.Tjio J.-H. Levan A. 1956 The chromosome number of man Hereditas 42 1–2 1–6 10.1111/j.1601-5223.1956.tb03010.x 345813 free 10261/15776 freePeter S. Harper Peter Harper (geneticist) The discovery of the human chromosome number in Lund, 1955–1956 http://www.genmedhist.info/Lund Human Genetics 2006 119 1–2 226–232 10.1007/s00439-005-0121-x 16463025 12237105 2011-08-18 subscription Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs discover reversible protein phosphorylation. Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat shows that a virus consists of an infective RNA core and a non-infective protein coat; and with Robley C. Williams assembles a functional tobacco mosaic virus from purified versions of these components. Avian influenza is confirmed to be caused by Influenza A virus.Schafer W. 1955 Vergleichende sero-immunologische Untersuchungen über die Viren der Influenza und klassischen Geflügelpest Comparative sero-immunological studies on the viruses of influenza and classical avian influenza Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 10 2 81–91 10.1515/znb-1955-0205 94565421 freeLycett Samantha J. Duchatel Florian Digard Paul 2019-06-24 A brief history of bird flu Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences en 374 1775 20180257 10.1098/rstb.2018.0257 0962-8436 6553608 31056053 Severo Ochoa develops enzymes that cause nucleic acid bases to form RNA. James F. Bonner and Paul Ts'o isolate mitochondria from cells. Chemistry January 11 – Lloyd Conover is granted a patent for tetracycline in the United States.Applied for in 1953. https://books.google.com/books?id=i4_FZHmzjzwC&q=lloyd%20conover%20patented%201955&pg=PA227 Antimicrobial Drugs: Chronicle of a Twentieth Century Medical Triumph David Greenwood 21 February 2008 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-953484-5 Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=9HANBQAAQBAJ&q=lloyd%20conover&pg=PT42 God Is Here to Stay: Science, Evolution, and Belief in God Thomas R. McFaul Al Brunsting 2014 Wipf and Stock Publishers 978-1-63087-180-2 Google Books February 19 – Mendelevium (atomic number 101) is first synthesized by Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Gregory R. Choppin, Bernard G. Harvey, and Stanley G. Thompson (team leader) at the University of California, Berkeley. 10.1103/PhysRev.98.1518 New Element Mendelevium, Atomic Number 101 1955 Ghiorso A. Harvey B. Choppin G. Thompson S. Seaborg G. Physical Review 98 5 1518–19 1955PhRv...98.1518G https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc886797/ free August 20 – Dorothy Hodgkin and colleagues publish the structure of vitamin B12.Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot Pickworth, Jenny Robertson, John H. Trueblood, Kenneth N. Prosen, Richard J. White, John G. Structure of Vitamin B12: The Crystal Structure of the Hexacarboxylic Acid derived from B12 and the Molecular Structure of the Vitamin Nature 176 4477 1955 325–8 https://www.nature.com/articles/176325a0 10.1038/176325a0 13253565 1955Natur.176..325H 4220926 subscription Diquat's properties as a contact herbicide are recognized at the Imperial Chemical Industries laboratories at Jealott's Hill in England.Jealott's Hill: Fifty years of Agricultural Research 1928-1978 F. C. Peacock Calderbank A. etal Chapter 9: Bipyridylium herbicides 67–86 Imperial Chemical Industries 1978 0-901747-01-7 https://archive.org/details/jealottshillfift0000peac/page/1 Renewable ion-exchange resin cartridges for water softening and purification are used in a device by Walter F. Lorch. Climatology August 9 – Gilbert Plass submits his seminal article "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change".The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change Gilbert N. Plass Tellus 8 2 140–54 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1956.tb01206.x May 1956 1956Tell....8..140P Computer science October 2 (11:45 p.m.) – The ENIAC computer is deactivated at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, having been in continuous operation since 1947.Martin H. Weik 1961 http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html The ENIAC Story Ftp.arl.mil 2011-08-18 https://web.archive.org/web/20110814181522/http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html 2011-08-14 Former Luftwaffe flying ace Ulrich Steinhilper, a German IBM typewriter salesman, coins and popularizes the term "Textverarbeitung" ("word processing").Overload! How Too Much Information is Hazardous to your Organization Spira Jonathan B. 2011 Wiley 978-1-118-06417-7 51 https://books.google.com/books?id=eC016EMcTmoC&q=Ulrich+Steinhilper+%22word+processing%22&pg=PA51 2013-06-08Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology Reilly Edwin D. 2013 Greenwood 978-1-57356-521-9 274 https://books.google.com/books?id=JTYPKxug49IC&q=Ulrich+Steinhilper+word+processor&pg=PA274 2013-06-08 Maurice Wilkes publishes a description of microprogramming in Electrical Engineering.May 2021 RAND publishes A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates. Earth sciences American geophysicist Clair Cameron Patterson presents his result for the age of the Earth using lead isotopic data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite – 4.55 billion years (± 70 million).Patterson C. 1956 Age of meteorites and the Earth Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 10 230–237 10.1016/0016-7037(56)90036-9 1956GeCoA..10..230P 41955 Winston, Robert Robert Winston Science Year by Year London Dorling Kindersley 2013 978-1-4093-1613-8 History of science and technology October – The term "Industrial archaeology" is popularised.Michael Rix Michael Rix (academic) Industrial Archaeology The Amateur Historian 2 8 October 1955 225–9 Mathematics July – Statistician David Cox publishes the Cox process.Cox D. R. Some Statistical Methods Connected with Series of Events Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 17 2 129–164 10.1111/j.2517-6161.1955.tb00188.x 1955 In the classification of finite simple groups, the Brauer–Fowler theorem is publishedBrauer R. Richard Brauer Fowler K. A. 48846261 On groups of even order 1970080 0074414 1955 Annals of Mathematics 2nd series 0003-486X 62 3 565–583 10.2307/1970080 and Claude Chevalley introduces Chevalley groups.Chevalley Claude Sur certains groupes simples 10.2748/tmj/1178245104 0073602 1955 Tohoku Mathematical Journal 2nd series 0040-8735 7 1–2 14–66 free Gilbert–Shannon–Reeds model for probability distribution of riffle shuffle permutations in shuffling playing cards reported.E. Gilbert Edgar Gilbert Theory of shuffling Technical memorandum Bell Labs. 1955 Peter Hilton starts work with Beno Eckmann and Karol Borsuk on what becomes known as Eckmann-Hilton duality for the homotopy category,Deformation Theory of Pseufogroup Structures Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 1967 Canadian Mathematical Society 764 https://books.google.com/books?id=LMqkjq1z7dMC&pg=PA764 a key driver in homological algebra. Klaus Roth publishes Roth's theorem on the Diophantine approximation of algebraic numbers.Roth K. F. Rational approximations to algebraic numbers 10.1112/S0025579300000644 1955 Mathematika 0025-5793 2 1–20, 168 0072182 The Taniyama–Shimura conjecture is first stated by Yutaka Taniyama at an international symposium in Japan.Taniyama Yutaka Sugaku 7 269 1956 Problem 12 ja Pharmacology The first benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), is synthesized by Leo Sternbach at Hoffmann-La Roche, although its properties are not recognized at this time.Shorter Edward A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry Oxford University Press 2005 Benzodiazepines 41–42 978-0-19-517668-1 Physics February – Harold Hopkins and Narinder Singh Kapany publish a key paper in the development of optical fiber technology.H. H. Hopkins N. S. Kapany Transparent fibres for the transmission of optical images Optica Acta 1 4 164–170 10.1080/713818685 1955AcOpt...1..164H 1955 March – Joseph Rotblat publishes his conclusions that contamination caused by nuclear fallout after the U.S. Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll is greater than officially stated.Joseph Rotblat The Hydrogen-Uranium Bomb Atomic Scientists Journal 4 224 March 1955 October – Ultra high frequency AN/FPS-31 early warning radar developed by Lincoln Laboratory begins operation on Jug Handle Hill at West Bath, Maine.Early-Warning Radars (part 3) http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/earlywarningradars3.html Lincoln Laboratory 2013-01-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20130312152819/http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/earlywarningradars3.html 2013-03-12 October 11 – Erwin Müller and Kanwar Bahadur are the first people to observe individual atoms, using Müller's field ion microscope.Müller Erwin W. Bahadur Kanwar 1956 Field Ionization of gases at a metal surface and the resolution of the field ion microscope Physical Review 102 3 624–631 10.1103/physrev.102.624 1956PhRv..102..624MMitch Jacoby http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8348atoms.html Atomic Imaging Turns 50 Chemical & Engineering News 83 48 13–16 2008-11-28 November 29 – The nuclear reactor core of Experimental Breeder Reactor I near Arco, Idaho, suffers a partial meltdown during a coolant flow test.The Story of the Borax Nuclear Reactor and the EBR-I Meltdown Ray Haroldsen 2008 The author 978-1-56684-706-3 Emmett Leith's work on synthetic-aperture radar leads to the development of holography. Existence of the antiproton is experimentally confirmed by University of California, Berkeley, physicists Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain. Enrico Fermi, John Pasta, Stanisław Ulam and Mary Tsingou numerically study a nonlinear spring model of heat conduction and discover solitary wave type behavior. Murray Gell-Mann and Abraham Pais investigate neutral kaon mixing. Luis Walter Alvarez develops the design of a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber.Alvarez L. W. 1987 Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist Basic Books 0-465-00115-7 https://archive.org/details/isbn_0465001165 185–9 University of Liverpool cyclotronScience Places Liverpool http://www.scienceplaces.org/liverpool/liverpool_list.html 2008 2011-03-20 2014-08-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20140815041701/http://www.scienceplaces.org/liverpool/liverpool_list.html and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory synchrotron begin operation. Physiology and medicine April 12 – The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.Franklin D. Roosevelt is one of the most famous polio victims.) By the early 1950s, polio epidemics had been increasing in severity ... https://web.archive.org/web/20150407024345/http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/tp/10scientists.htm 2015-04-07 history1900s.about.com December 24 – Henry K. Beecher publishes a paper indicating the powerful effect of placebos on patient outcomes.Beecher Henry K. The Powerful Placebo Journal of the American Medical Association 159 1955 1602–1606 17 10.1001/jama.1955.02960340022006 13271123 Outbreak of "Royal Free disease" or "benign myalgic encephalomyelitis", strongly resembling what will later be known as chronic fatigue syndrome, among staff at the Royal Free Hospital in London.Acheson E. D. The clinical syndrome variously called benign myalgic encephalomyelitis, Iceland disease and epidemic neuromyasthaenia The American Journal of Medicine 26 4 569–95 1959 13637100 http://www.meresearch.org.uk/information/keypubs/Acheson_AmJMed.pdf 10.1016/0002-9343(59)90280-3 2011-07-29 https://web.archive.org/web/20110721231159/http://www.meresearch.org.uk/information/keypubs/Acheson_AmJMed.pdf 2011-07-21 G. I. M. Swyer first describes XY gonadal dysgenesis.Banoth, M. Naru, R. R. Inamdar, M. B. Chowhan, A. K. Familial Swyer syndrome: a rare genetic entity Gynecological Endocrinology 34 5 389–393 2018 29069951 10.1080/09513590.2017.1393662 4452231 First reported mitral valve replacement, by Judson Chesterman of Sheffield (England).https://www.textbookofcardiology.org/wiki/Historical_timeline:_1852-1967 Historical timeline: 1852-1967 Textbook of Cardiology 2022-10-27 Hemolytic–uremic syndrome is first described by Conrad Gasser. Technology January 5 – Strömsund Bridge in Sweden completed, the first significant cable-stayed bridge of the modern era.Strömsund Bridge (1955) Structurae http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000070 2010-10-02 July 17 – The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the U.S. National Reactor Testing Station; on July 18, Schenectady, New York, receives power from a prototype nuclear submarine reactor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. August 24 – The first accurate atomic clock, a caesium standard based on a certain transition of the caesium-133 atom, is built by Louis Essen with J. V. L. Parry at the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom).Essen L. Parry J. V. L. 13 August 1955 An Atomic Standard of Frequency and Time Interval: A Cæsium Resonator Nature 176 4476 280–2 10.1038/176280a0 1955Natur.176..280E 4191481 December 12 – Christopher Cockerell is granted a United Kingdom patent for his design of hovercraft. Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral is granted a patent for the Velcro fabric hook-and-loop fastener.Stephens Thomas How a Swiss invention hooked the world swissinfo.ch 2007-01-04 http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=7402384 2011-12-16 Tappan introduce the first domestic microwave oven, in the United States. American electrical engineer Eugene Polley invents the Zenith Flash-Matic, the first wireless television remote control.Inventor of the TV remote control dies http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-inventor-of-the-tv-remote-control-dies-20120522,0,2561385.story Chicago Tribune 2012-05-22 2012-05-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20120523062717/http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-inventor-of-the-tv-remote-control-dies-20120522,0,2561385.story 2012-05-23https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18164200 TV remote control inventor Eugene Polley dies at 96 BBC News 2012-05-22 2012-05-23 Zoology French zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans publishes On the Track of Unknown Animals (Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées), pioneering the pseudoscientific field of cryptozoology. Events July 9 – Russell–Einstein Manifesto issued in London by Bertrand Russell with the signatures of the late Albert Einstein, Max Born and other prominent scientists drawing the attention of world political leaders to the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. Publications Eugene Garfield proposes the concept of citation indexing for scientific literature.Garfield Eugene Citation indexes for science: a new dimension in documentation through association of ideas Science 122 3159 108–111 15 July 1955 http://scimaps.org/static/docs/Garfield1955cit.pdf 2011-07-29 10.1126/science.122.3159.108 1955Sci...122..108G 14385826 June 2017 InternetArchiveBot yes Awards Nobel Prizes Physics – Willis Eugene Lamb, Polykarp Kusch Chemistry – Vincent du Vigneaud Medicine – Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell Copley Medal (Royal Society of London) – Ronald Fisher Wollaston Medal (Geological Society of London) – A. E. Trueman Births thumb|350px|Steve Jobs and Bill Gates January 1 – Simon Schaffer, English historian of science. January 6 – Susan B. Horwitz (died 2014), American computer scientist and academic. January 17 – Katalin Karikó, Hungarian-born biochemist, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.James Gallagher Nobel Prize goes to scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66983060 2023-10-02 2023-10-02 January 24 – Alan Sokal, American mathematical physicist and proponent of scientific objectivity. February 3 – Sue Ion, born Susan Burrows, English nuclear scientist. February 24 – Steve Jobs (died 2011), American computing entrepreneur. April 11 – Piers Sellers (died 2016), English-born astronaut and climate scientist. April 20 – Svante Pääbo, Swedish evolutionary geneticist, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. April 30 – Francis Muguet (died 2009), French chemist and advocate of open access to information. May 8 – Pat Hanrahan, American computer scientist. May 30 – Jacqueline McGlade, British-born marine biologist and pioneer of environmental informatics. June 8 – Tim Berners-Lee, English creator of the World Wide Web.Tim Berners-Lee Biography, Education, Internet, Contributions, & Facts Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tim-Berners-Lee www.britannica.com 29 March 2023 en 15 March 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230315031626/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tim-Berners-Lee live June 11 – Duncan Steel, English/Australasian space scientist. October 2 – Nancy Rothwell, English physiologist. October 28 – Bill Gates, American software designer and entrepreneur. November 4 – David Julius, American physiologist, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. December 22 – Thomas C. Südhof, German-born biochemist, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Luis Álvarez-Gaumé, Spanish theoretical physicist. Deaths February 2 – Oswald Avery (born 1877), Canadian-American bacteriologist. March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming (born 1881), British bacteriologist, winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. March 15 – Michele Besso (born 1873), Swiss engineer, confidant of Einstein. April 10 – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ (born 1881), French-born paleontologist and philosopher. April 17 – Eduard Pernkopf (born 1888), Austrian anatomist. April 18 – Albert Einstein (born 1879), German-born theoretical physicist, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. April 20 – Tirukkannapuram Vijayaraghavan (born 1902), Indian mathematician. June 12 – Redcliffe N. Salaman (born 1874), English botanist. July 21 – J. B. Christopherson (born 1868), English physician. August 11 – Robert W. Wood (born 1868), American optical physicist. August 12 – James B. Sumner (born 1887), American biochemist, winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. November 25 – Sir Arthur Tansley (born 1871), English botanist and ecologist. December 13 – Antonio Egas Moniz (born 1874), Portuguese neurologist, winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. References Category:20th century in science Category:1950s in science