1947 in science

none thumb | right | The Kon-Tiki raft, a pre-Columbian style raft built in 1947 by Thor Heyerdahl and used to sail from Peru to Tuamotus, French Polynesia 1947 science 1947 The year 1947 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. Anthropology August 7 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa-wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 4300-mile (6900-km) journey across the Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that prehistoric peoples could have traveled from South America.http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/8/7 Wood Raft Makes 4,300-Mile Voyage This Day in History BBC 4 July 2010 Astronomy and space exploration February 12 – Sikhote-Alin meteorite falls to Earth in Siberia, the largest iron meteorite known to have impacted.O. Richard Orton Rocks From Space Mountain Press Publishing Missoula, Montana 2nd 1998 103 0-87842-373-7 February 20 – The first living things sent into space (and returned) are fruit flies, accompanied by rye and cotton seeds, aboard a V-2 rocket launched by the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps which reaches an altitude of 68 miles (109 km).http://www.postwarv2.com/usa/ws/uars/uars20.html Upper Air Rocket Summary V-2 No. 20 11 May 2011 https://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part1.htm The Beginnings of Research in Space Biology at the Air Force Missile Development Center, 1946-1952 2008-01-31 History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics NASA https://web.archive.org/web/20080125044753/https://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part1.htm 25 January 2008 livehttp://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/FactSheets/V2/v-2tab.htm V-2 Firing Tables 2008-01-31 White Sands Missile Range https://web.archive.org/web/20080125175018/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/FactSheets/V2/v-2tab.htm 2008-01-25 Bok globules are reported.Bok Bart J. Bart Bok Reilly Edith F. Small Dark Nebulae The Astrophysical Journal 105 255 March 1947 1947ApJ...105..255B 10.1086/144901 Biology The Oxford Swift Research Project, based on the colony at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, is started by David and Elizabeth Lack. It will still be running more than sixty years later.The swifts in the tower http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/visiting/swifts/index.htm Oxford University Museum of Natural History 2011-03-17 2011-03-11 https://web.archive.org/web/20110311033849/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/visiting/swifts/index.htm deadThe Museum Swifts: the story of the swifts in the tower of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History Andrew Lack Andrew Lack (author) Roy Overall Oxford University Museum of Natural History 2002 0-9542726-0-9 David Lack publishes Darwin's Finches. Zika virus first isolated from a rhesus macaque in the Zika Forest of Uganda. Influenza C virus first isolated.Asha Kumari Kumar Binod 2019-02-05 Emerging Influenza D Virus Threat: What We Know so Far! Journal of Clinical Medicine 8 2 192– 10.3390/jcm8020192 6406440 30764577 free Computer science January 25 – Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann file a United States patent request for an invention described as a "cathode-ray tube amusement device",US 2455992 1948-12-14 Cathode-ray tube amusement device Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories Inc. Goldsmith Jr. Thomas T. Estle Ray Mann probably the first video game. July 29 – After being shut off on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment and relocation, ENIAC, one of the world's first digital computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.http://www.britannica.com/facts/10/40900528/July-29-1947-After-being-shut-off-on July 29, 1947 Britannica 4 July 2010 August 18 – Official start of construction of Automatic Computing Engine in the United Kingdom. September 9 – A moth lodged in a relay is found to be the cause of a malfunction in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer, logged as "First actual case of bug being found."http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/bug.html bug:n. The Jargon File 2012-01-20http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/main?edan_q=Log+book+with+computer+bug&op=Search Log Book With Computer Bug National Museum of American History 2013-01-16 https://web.archive.org/web/20140927135534/http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/main?edan_q=Log+book+with+computer+bug&op=Search 2014-09-27 dead October – First recorded use of the word computer in its modern sense, referring to an electronic digital machine.computer, n. Oxford English Dictionary online version Oxford University Press http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/37975?redirectedFrom=computer#eid 2011-11-29 September 2011 Mathematics John Crank and Phyllis Nicolson describe the Crank–Nicolson method in numerical analysis.A practical method for numerical evaluation of solutions of partial differential equations of the heat conduction type Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 43 1 1947 50–67 10.1017/S0305004100023197 Crank J. John Crank Nicolson P. Phyllis Nicolson 16676040 George Dantzig publishes the simplex algorithm for linear programming.Murty Katta G. Linear programming Wiley New York 1983 0-471-09725-X 720547Cottle, Richard W The Basic George B. Dantzig Stanford University Press 2003 George B. DantzigGeorge B. Dantzig Mukund N. Thapa 1997 Linear programming 1: Introduction SpringerGeorge B. Dantzig Mukund N. Thapa 2003 Linear Programming 2: Theory and Extensions SpringerMichael J. Todd February 2002 The many facets of linear programming Mathematical Programming 91 3 10.1007/s101070100261 417–436 6464735Computing in Science and Engineering 2(1) (2000). Medicine January – Prosopagnosia is first named by German neurologist Joachim Bodamer.Joachim Bodamer Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten Die Prosop-Agnosie: Die Agnosie des Physiognomieerkennens 1947 179 6–53 August 20 – Doctors' Trial concludes, establishing the Nuremberg Code as a model of research ethics for human subject research.10.1353/bhm.2001.0049 The Origins of Informed Consent: The International Scientific Commission on Medical War Crimes, and the Nuremburg Code 2001 Weindling Paul Bulletin of the History of Medicine 75 1 37–71 11420451 20239629 November 29 – Mary Barber publishes her classic paper on antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus bacteria.Staphylococcal Infection due to Penicillin-Resistant Strains Mary Barber British Medical Journal 1947-11-29 2 4534 863–865 10.1136/bmj.2.4534.863 2056216 20272443Hugh Pennington Pennington Hugh http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=13593 Rooting out the villains 2010-02-09 Public Service.co.uk 2012-12-06 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110228090904/http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=13593 2011-02-28 Haines Catharine M. C. 2001 International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950 1-57607-090-5 ABC-CLIO Santa Barbara https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain The first antithyroid drug, propylthiouracil, is introduced in the United States.Skugor Mario Wilder Jesse Bryant The Cleveland Clinic Guide to Thyroid Disorders 2009 New York Kaplan Publishing 978-1-4277-9969-2 71 https://archive.org/details/clevelandclinicg00skug registration propylthiouracil introduced 1947. 13 September 2011 The first use of defibrillation on a human subject is performed by Claude Beck, professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University.http://www.cwru.edu/artsci/dittrick/museum/artifacts1/defibrllator.html Claude Beck, defibrillation and CPR Case Western Reserve University 2010 2012-06-13 Metrology February 23 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded. Paleontology April 18 – "Mrs. Ples" (STS 5), the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus specimen ever found in South Africa, is discovered at Sterkfontein (Transvaal) by Robert Broom and John T. Robinson. Physics June – The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is introduced. June 2 – The Shelter Island Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics convenes in New York State.http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/shelterisland.html The Shelter Island Conference The National Academies 4 July 2010 1 April 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100401055459/http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/shelterisland.html dead August 15 – 'GLEEP' (the Graphite Low Energy Experimental Pile) experimental nuclear reactor runs for the first time at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxfordshire, the first reactor to operate in Western Europe. December 20 – The discovery of kaon is published in Nature (journal). Harold Urey, Jacob Bigeleisen, and Maria Mayer introduce the Urey–Bigeleisen–Mayer equation, a model for approximating isotope fractionation. Richet P. Bottinga Y. Javoy M. A Review of Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sulphur, and Chlorine Stable Isotope Fractionation Among Gaseous Molecules Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 1977 5 65–110 10.1146/annurev.ea.05.050177.000433 1977AREPS...5...65R Urey H.C. The Thermodynamic Properties of Isotopic Substances Journal of the Chemical Society 1947 562–581 10.1039/JR9470000562 20249764 Calculation of Equilibrium Constants for Isotopic Exchange Reactions Bigeleisen J. Mayer M.G. The Journal of Chemical Physics 15 5 1947 261–267 10.1063/1.1746492 1947JChPh..15..261B 2027/mdp.39015074123996 free Technology February 21 – Edwin H. Land demonstrates the first practical instant camera, the Land Camera, in New York City. It will first be on commercial sale in December 1948. November 13 – First AK-47 selective-fire, gas-operated assault rifle produced in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. November 17–December 23 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States demonstrate the transistor effect.November 17 – December 23, 1947: Invention of the First Transistor American Physical Society http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200011/history.cfm 2013-01-16 December 11 – A hexagonal cellular telephone network is proposed by Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young of Bell Labs for mobile phones in vehicles.http://www.privateline.com/archive/Ringcellreport1947.pdf 1947-12-11 Mobile Telephony – Wide Area Coverage D. H. Ring https://web.archive.org/web/20120207062016/http://www.privateline.com/archive/Ringcellreport1947.pdf usurped 2012-02-07 2018-07-10 The clavioline is invented by Constant Martin. The disposable nappy is invented by Valerie Hunter Gordon. Raytheon produces the first commercial microwave oven. Awards Nobel Prizes"Nobel Laureates 1947." Nobelprize. Physics – Edward Victor Appleton Chemistry – Sir Robert Robinson Medicine – Carl Ferdinand Cori, Gerty Cori, Bernardo Houssay Births January 24 – Michio Kaku, American theoretical physicist and popularizer of science. January 29 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2004. January 30 – Masaki Kashiwara, Japanese mathematician.2025: Masaki Kashiwara https://abelprize.no/abel-prize-laureates/2025 2025-03-28 The Abel Prize February 4 – John Campbell Brown (died 2019), Scottish astronomer.Obituary: Professor John Brown OBE, Astronomer Royal for Scotland who used magic tricks to share wonder of the cosmos https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-professor-john-brown-obe-astronomer-royal-scotland-who-used-magic-tricks-share-wonder-cosmos-1398717 www.scotsman.com 27 May 2021 March 16 – Keith Devlin, English-born mathematician and popularizer of science. April 18 – Chris Rapley, British climate scientist. May 9 – Michael Levitt, South African-born computational biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2013. June 8 – Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1995. June 15 – Alain Aspect, French quantum physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physicshttps://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2022/press-release/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 2022-10-04 Nobel Prize The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2022-10-06 June 25 – Will Steffen (died 2023), American-born Australian chemist.Will Steffen, ‘courageous’ climate scientist, dies in Canberra aged 75 July 5 – Lalji Singh (died 2017), Indian biotechnologist and cytogeneticist, "father of Indian DNA fingerprinting". July 30 – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, French virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2008. August 21 – Margaret Chan, Hong Kong-born physician. December 6 – Geoffrey Hinton, English-born cognitive psychologist and computer scientist, "godfather of AI", recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024. December 16 – Martyn Poliakoff, British chemist and popularizer of science. Stuart W. Jamieson, Rhodesian-born cardiothoracic surgeon. Deaths February 12 – Moses Gomberg (born 1866), American chemist. February 25 – Friedrich Paschen (born 1865), German physicist. August 23 – Roy Chadwick (born 1893), English aircraft designer (aircraft accident). September 15 – Annie Maunder (born 1868), Anglo-Irish astronomer. October 2 – P. D. Ouspensky (born 1878), Russian-born philosopher. October 4 – Max Planck (born 1858), German quantum physicist. November 17 – Emil Racoviță (born 1868), Romanian biologist, speleologist and polar explorer. December 1 John Fraser (born 1885), Scottish surgeon. G. H. Hardy (born 1877), English mathematician.GRO Register of Deaths: December 1947 4a 204 Cambridge – Godfrey H. Hardy, aged 70. December 17 – J. N. Brønsted (born 1879), Danish physical chemist. References Category:20th century in science Category:1940s in science