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The year 1953 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biochemistry

April 25 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson of the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" in the British journal Nature^[1] (first announced February 28), often ranked as one of the most dramatic results in biology during the 20th century because of the structural beauty and functional logic of the DNA double helix.^[2] They will share a 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Maurice Wilkins who publishes x-ray crystallography results for DNA in the same issue of Nature.^[3] The third related article published at the same time is by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling on "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate".^[4]
May 15 - Stanley Miller publishes (in Science) results from the "Miller-Urey experiment". These surprise many chemists by showing that organic molecules present in living organisms can form easily from simple chemicals.^[5]

Chemistry

Rudolph Pariser, Robert G. Parr and John Pople publish their computational quantum chemistry theory for approximating molecular orbitals.^[6]

Computer science

There are estimated to be about 100 hand-built computers in the world.^{[citation needed]}
Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester completes a device called MEG, which performs floating-point calculations. This machine evolves into the first transistorized computer, the Metro-Vickers MV950, leading to mass production of computers.
Alan Turing publishes an article describing the first 1,104 zeroes of the Riemann zeta-function, culminating fifteen years of work on how to use computers to tackle a fundamental problem in number theory.^[7]

Evolution

November 21 - Authorities at the Natural History Museum in London announce that the skull of Piltdown Man (discovered in 1912) is a hoax.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Geology

Maurice Ewing and Bruce Heezen discover the deep canyon running along the center of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an important contribution to plate tectonics.^[11]

Life science

August 18 - The second Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, is published in the United States.
September 4 - The discovery of REM sleep is first published by researchers Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman of the University of Chicago.^[12]

Philosophy of science

Rudolf Carnap publishes an article called "Testability and Meaning" in Readings in the Philosophy of Science which moves away from the philosophical position of Logical positivism with respect to science (particularly the heavily mathematical sciences like physics). Carnap now emphasizes the idea that progress in science depends on the gradual accumulation of many small results that support our understanding of the world, a view more in line with Wittgenstein's later philosophy and biological sciences.
As part of an extended series of publications on science, Pope Pius XII publisheS "The Technician" which instructs scientists to restrict themselves to the study of physical matter and do nothing to undermine the idea of a non-material soul or a Superior Being. "The Technician" is delivered as a papal address on October 9.

Physics

Spring - Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan perform the first neutrino detection experiments using the first neutrino detector (cadmium-water target) built by them and with the Hanford Site nuclear facility in Washington as the neutrino source; preliminary results are published in the Summer.^[13] This work, first discussed with Enrico Fermi and others in 1951–2, leads to the 1995 Nobel Prize.

Psychology

Hans Eysenck publishes the book Uses and Abuses of Psychology including a controversial chapter "What is wrong with psychoanalysis".
B. F. Skinner publishes the book Science and Human Behavior (ISBN 0-02-929040-6), a still-controversial attempt to apply the results from behavioral studies of laboratory animals to human psychology.

Space technology

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory completes development of the SSM-A-17 Corporal I rocket. This is the first U.S. surface-to-surface ballistic missile and the motor is liquid fueled with red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer.

Other events

February 16 - The Pakistan Academy of Sciences is established.

Births

May 14 - Martin Page, English botanist.

Deaths

February 25 - Sergei Winogradsky (b. 1856), Russian microbiologist.
April 22 - Jan Czochralski (b. 1885), Polish-born discoverer of the Czochralski process for growing crystals.
August 15 - Ludwig Prandtl (b. 1875), German physicist.
September 28 - Edwin Hubble (b. 1889), American astronomer.

References

^ Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. C. (1953). "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" (PDF). Nature. 171: 737–738. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
^ "Scientists describe 'secret of life'". On This Day. BBC. 1953-04-25. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
^ Wilkins, M. H. F.; Stokes, A. R.; Wilson, H. R. (1953). "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" (PDF). Nature. 171: 738–740. Retrieved 2011-03-01.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Franklin, Rosalind E.; Gosling, R. G. (1953). "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate" (PDF). Nature. 171: 740–741. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
^ Miller, Stanley L. (1953). "A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". Science. 117: 528–9. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
^ Pariser, R.; Parr, R. G. Journal of Chemical Physics 21(466): 767; Pople, J. A. Transactions of the Faraday Society 49: 1375.
^ Turing, Alan M. (1953). "Some calculations of the Riemann zeta-function". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. 3: 99–117.
^ Weiner, J. S.; Oakley, K. P.; Le Gros Clark, W. E. "The Solution of the Piltdown Problem". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geological Series. 2 (3).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "End as a Man". Time. 30 November 1953. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
^ Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.
^ Ewing, Maurice; Heezen, Bruce C.; Ericson, D. B.; Northrop, John; Dorman, James (1953). "Exploration of the Northwest Atlantic Mid-ocean Canyon". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. 64: 865–868. Retrieved 2011-03-01. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Aserinsky, Eugene; Kleitman, Nathaniel (1953). "Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep". Science. 118: 273–274. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
^ Reines, F.; Cowan, C. L., jr (1953). "Detection of the Free Neutrino". Physical Review. 92: 830–831. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.92.830. Retrieved 2011-03-01. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[1] Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. C. (1953). "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" (PDF). Nature. 171: 737–738. Retrieved 2011-03-01.

[2] "Scientists describe 'secret of life'". On This Day. BBC. 1953-04-25. Retrieved 2008-01-10.

[3] Wilkins, M. H. F.; Stokes, A. R.; Wilson, H. R. (1953). "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids" (PDF). Nature. 171: 738–740. Retrieved 2011-03-01.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[4] Franklin, Rosalind E.; Gosling, R. G. (1953). "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate" (PDF). Nature. 171: 740–741. Retrieved 2011-03-01.

[5] Miller, Stanley L. (1953). "A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". Science. 117: 528–9. Retrieved 2011-03-01.

[6] Pariser, R.; Parr, R. G. Journal of Chemical Physics 21(466): 767; Pople, J. A. Transactions of the Faraday Society 49: 1375.

[7] Turing, Alan M. (1953). "Some calculations of the Riemann zeta-function". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. 3: 99–117.

[8] Weiner, J. S.; Oakley, K. P.; Le Gros Clark, W. E. "The Solution of the Piltdown Problem". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geological Series. 2 (3).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[9] "End as a Man". Time. 30 November 1953. Retrieved 2010-11-11.

[10] Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0.

[11] Ewing, Maurice; Heezen, Bruce C.; Ericson, D. B.; Northrop, John; Dorman, James (1953). "Exploration of the Northwest Atlantic Mid-ocean Canyon". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. 64: 865–868. Retrieved 2011-03-01. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[12] Aserinsky, Eugene; Kleitman, Nathaniel (1953). "Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep". Science. 118: 273–274. Retrieved 2011-03-01.

[13] Reines, F.; Cowan, C. L., jr (1953). "Detection of the Free Neutrino". Physical Review. 92: 830–831. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.92.830. Retrieved 2011-03-01. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ==Biochemistry==
-* [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson]] published "[[Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids|Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid]]" in the British journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' (April 25). Often ranked as one of the most dramatic results in Biology during the 20th century because of the structural beauty and functional logic of the [[DNA|DNA double helix]]. They shared a 1962 [[Nobel Prize in Medicine]] with [[Maurice Wilkins]] who published [[x-ray crystallography]] results for DNA in the same issue of ''Nature'' with Watson and Crick ([http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/wilkins.pdf Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids]).
+* [[April 25]] - [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson]] of the [[University of Cambridge]]'s [[Cavendish Laboratory]] publish "[[Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid]]" in the British journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Watson|first1=J. D.|last2=Crick|first2=F. H. C.|year=1953|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v171/n4356/pdf/171737a0.pdf|title=Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid|volume=171|pages=737–738|journal=Nature|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref> (first announced [[February 28]]), often ranked as one of the most dramatic results in biology during the 20th century because of the structural beauty and functional logic of the [[DNA|DNA double helix]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2932000/2932793.stm|title=Scientists describe 'secret of life'|publisher=[[BBC]]|work=On This Day|accessdate=2008-01-10|date=1953-04-25}}</ref> They will share a 1962 [[Nobel Prize in Medicine]] with [[Maurice Wilkins]] who publishes [[x-ray crystallography]] results for DNA in the same issue of ''Nature''.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wilkins, M. H. F.; [[Alex Stokes|Stokes, A. R.]]; [[Herbert Wilson|Wilson, H. R.]]|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/wilkins.pdf|title=Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose Nucleic Acids|volume=171|pages=738–740|journal=Nature|year=1953|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref> The third related article published at the same time is by [[Rosalind Franklin]] and [[Raymond Gosling]] on "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate".<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Rosalind E.|last1=Franklin|first2=R. G.|last2=Gosling|title=Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate|url=http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/franklingosling.pdf|volume=171|pages=740–741|journal=Nature|year=1953|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref>
-* Stanley L. Miller published (May 15 in ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'') results from the "[[Miller experiment|Miller-Urey experiment]]". These results  surprised many chemists by showing that organic molecules present in living organisms can form easily from simple chemicals. [http://www.issol.org/miller/miller1953.pdf Download the article]. ([[Portable Document Format|PDF file]])
+* [[May 15]] - [[Stanley Miller]] publishes (in ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'') results from the "[[Miller experiment|Miller-Urey experiment]]". These surprise many chemists by showing that organic molecules present in living organisms can form easily from simple chemicals.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1680569|first=Stanley L.|last=Miller|title=A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions|journal=Science|volume=117|year=1953|pages=528-9|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref>
 ==Chemistry==
-*[[Rudolph Pariser|Pariser]] - [[John Pople|Pople]] - [[Robert G. Parr|Parr]] computational [[quantum chemistry]] theory for approximating [[molecular orbital]]s. (R. Pariser and R.G. Parr, J. Chem. Phys. 21, 466, 767) (J.A. Pople, Trans. Faraday Soc. 49, 1375)
+* [[Rudolph Pariser]], [[Robert G. Parr]] and [[John Pople]] publish their computational [[quantum chemistry]] theory for approximating [[molecular orbital]]s.<ref>Pariser, R.; Parr, R. G. ''[[Journal of Chemical Physics]]'' '''21'''(466): 767; Pople, J. A. ''[[Transactions of the  Faraday Society]]'' '''49''': 1375.</ref>
 ==Computer science==
-*It has been estimated that there were only about 100 hand-built computers in the world in 1953. Researchers such as [[Tom Kilburn]] at the [[University of Manchester]] completed a device called MEG, which did [[floating-point]] calculations. This machine evolved into the first [[transistor]]ized computer, the Metro-Vickers MV950, leading to mass production of computers.
+* There are estimated to be about 100 hand-built computers in the world.{{citation needed}}
+* [[Tom Kilburn]] at the [[University of Manchester]] completes a device called MEG, which performs [[floating-point]] calculations. This machine evolves into the first [[transistor]]ized computer, the [[Metropolitan-Vickers|Metro-Vickers]] MV950, leading to mass production of computers.
-*[[Alan Turing]] published an article describing the first 1,104 zeroes of the [[Riemann zeta-function]], culminating 15 years of work on how to use computers to tackle a fundamental problem in number theory.
+* [[Alan Turing]] publishes an article describing the first 1,104 zeroes of the [[Riemann zeta-function]], culminating fifteen years of work on how to use computers to tackle a fundamental problem in number theory.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Alan M.|last=Turing|title=Some calculations of the Riemann zeta-function|journal=[[Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society]]|year=1953|volume=3|pages=99-117}}</ref>
 ==Evolution==
-*The [[Piltdown man]] fraud came to the attention of the world after publications such as "The Solution of the Piltdown Problem," by J. S. Weiner, K. P. Oakley and W. E. Le Gros Clark in ''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geological Series'', Vol. 2, No. 3.
+* [[November 21]] - Authorities at the [[Natural History Museum]] in [[London]] announce that the [[human skull|skull]] of [[Piltdown Man]] (discovered in [[1912 in science|1912]]) is a hoax.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Solution of the Piltdown Problem|author=Weiner, J. S.; [[Kenneth Oakley|Oakley, K. P.]]; [[Wilfrid Le Gros Clark|Le Gros Clark, W. E.]]|journal=Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Geological Series|volume=2|issue=3}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,823171,00.html|title=End as a Man|journal=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=30 November 1953|accessdate=2010-11-11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}</ref>
 ==Geology==
-*[[Maurice Ewing]] and [[Bruce Heezen]] discovered the deep canyon running along the center of the [[Mid-Atlantic Ridge]]. This was an important contribution to [[plate tectonics]].
+* [[Maurice Ewing]] and [[Bruce Heezen]] discover the deep canyon running along the center of the [[Mid-Atlantic Ridge]], an important contribution to [[plate tectonics]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ewing, Maurice; Heezen, Bruce C.; Ericson, D. B.; Northrop, John; Dorman, James|year=1953|title=Exploration of the Northwest Atlantic Mid-ocean Canyon|journal=Bulletin of the [[Geological Society of America]]|volume=64|month=July|year=1953|pages=865-868|url= http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/content/64/7/865.full.pdf+html|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref>
 ==Life science==
-* [[Kinsey Reports|Kinsey Report]], ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female'', is published.
+* [[August 18]] - The second [[Kinsey Reports|Kinsey Report]], ''[[Sexual Behavior in the Human Female]]'', is published in the [[United States]].
+* [[September 4]] - The discovery of [[REM sleep]] is first published by researchers [[Eugene Aserinsky]] and [[Nathaniel Kleitman]] of the [[University of Chicago]].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Eugene|last1=Aserinsky|first2=Nathaniel|last2=Kleitman|title= Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep|journal=Science|volume=118|year=1953|pages=273-274|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1680525|accessdate=2011-03-01}}</ref>
 ==Philosophy of science==
-*[[Carnap|Rudolf Carnap]] published an article called "Testability and Meaning" in ''Readings in the Philosophy of Science'' which moved away from the philosophical position of  [[Logical positivism]] with respect to science (particularly the heavily mathematical sciences like physics). Carnap now emphasized the idea that progress in science depends on the gradual accumulation of many small results that support our understanding of the world, a view more in line with [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]]'s later philosophy and biological sciences.
+* [[Carnap|Rudolf Carnap]] publishes an article called "Testability and Meaning" in ''Readings in the Philosophy of Science'' which moves away from the philosophical position of [[Logical positivism]] with respect to science (particularly the heavily mathematical sciences like physics). Carnap now emphasizes the idea that progress in science depends on the gradual accumulation of many small results that support our understanding of the world, a view more in line with [[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]]'s later philosophy and biological sciences.
+* As part of an extended series of publications on science, [[Pope Pius XII]] publisheS "The Technician" which instructs scientists to restrict themselves to the study of physical [[matter]] and do nothing to undermine the idea of a non-material [[soul]] or a [[God#God in monotheistic religions|Superior Being]]. "The Technician" is delivered as a papal address on [[October 9]].
-*As part of an extended series of publications on science, [[Pope Pius XII]] published "The Technician" which instructed scientists to restrict themselves to the study of physical [[matter]] and do nothing to undermine the idea of a non-material [[soul]] or a [[God#God in monotheistic religions|Superior Being]]. "The Technician" was delivered as a papal address on October 9, 1953.
 ==Physics==
-*In 1951 and 1952 physicists such as [[Frederick Reines]], [[Enrico Fermi]] and [[Clyde Cowan]] discussed plans for detecting [[neutrino]]s. They built the first neutrino detector ([[cadmium]]-water target) and used the [[Hanford Site|nuclear facility]] of Hanford, Washington as the neutrino source. The first neutrino detection experiments were performed in the Spring of 1953 and preliminary results were published that Summer ( F. Reines and C. L. Cowan, "Detection of the Free Neutrino", Phys. Rev. 92, 830). Their work led to the 1995 Nobel Prize.
+* Spring - [[Frederick Reines]] and [[Clyde Cowan]] perform the first [[neutrino]] detection experiments using the first neutrino detector ([[cadmium]]-water target) built by them and with the [[Hanford Site]] nuclear facility in [[Washington (state)|Washington]] as the neutrino source; preliminary results are published in the Summer.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=F.|last1=Reines|first2=C. L., jr|last2=Cowan|title=Detection of the Free Neutrino|journal=[[Physical Review]]|volume=92|month=November|year=1953|pages=830-831|url=http://prola.aps.org/pdf/PR/v92/i3/p830_1|accessdate=2011-03-01|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.92.830}}</ref> This work, first discussed with [[Enrico Fermi]] and others in 1951&ndash;2, leads to the 1995 [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize]].
 ==Psychology==
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 ==Space technology==
-*The [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] finished development of the SSM-A-17 Corporal I rocket. This was the first U.S. surface-to-surface ballistic missile and the motor was liquid fueled with [[Nitric acid|red fuming nitric acid]] as the [[oxidizer]].
+* The [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] completes development of the SSM-A-17 Corporal I rocket. This is the first U.S. surface-to-surface ballistic missile and the motor is liquid fueled with [[Nitric acid|red fuming nitric acid]] as the [[oxidizer]].
+==Other events==
+* [[February 16]] - The [[Pakistan Academy of Sciences]] is established.
 ==Births==
-*[[May 14]] - [[Martin Page (botanist)|Martin Page]], botanist
+* [[May 14]] - [[Martin Page (botanist)|Martin Page]], [[English people|English]] [[botanist]].
 ==Deaths==
-*[[April 22]] - [[Jan Czochralski]] (b. [[1885 in science|1885]]), discoverer of the [[Czochralski process]] for growing [[crystal]]s.
+* [[February 25]] - [[Sergei Winogradsky]]  (b. [[1856 in science|1856]]), [[Russia]]n [[microbiologist]].
-*[[August 15]] - [[Ludwig Prandtl]] (b. [[1875 in science|1875]]), [[physicist]].
+* [[April 22]] - [[Jan Czochralski]] (b. [[1885 in science|1885]]), [[Poland|Polish]]-born discoverer of the [[Czochralski process]] for growing [[crystal]]s.
-*[[September 28]] - [[Edwin Hubble]] (b. [[1889 in science|1889]]), American astronomer.
+* [[August 15]] - [[Ludwig Prandtl]] (b. [[1875 in science|1875]]), [[Germans|German]] [[physicist]].
+* [[September 28]] - [[Edwin Hubble]] (b. [[1889 in science|1889]]), [[United States|American]] [[astronomer]].
+==References==
+{{Reflist}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:1953 In Science}}