1921 in science

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The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Cartography

• Winkel tripel projection proposed.

Chemistry

• Étienne Biéler and James Chadwick publish a key paper on the strong interaction.
• Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of tetraethyllead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline (petrol).

Exploration

• Danish explorer Lauge Koch first sets foot on and names Kaffeklubben Island, the northernmost point of land on Earth.

Mathematics

• John Maynard Keynes publishes A Treatise on Probability.
• Emmy Noether publishes Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen, developing ideal ring theory, an important text in the field of abstract algebra.
• First publication of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, as "Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung" in Annalen der Naturphilosophie.

Medicine

• July 18 – The first BCG vaccination against tuberculosis.
• July 27 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
• American biochemist Elmer McCollum identifies the presence of a component in cod liver oil which cures rickets, which he calls vitamin D.
• Fidel Pagés pioneers epidural anesthesia.

Physics

• T. Kaluza demonstrates that a five-dimensional version of Albert Einstein's equations unifies gravitation and electromagnetism.

Psychology

• Hermann Rorschach publishes Psychodiagnostik, proposing the inkblot test.
• Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault publishes Les Psychoses passionelles, a comprehensive review of erotomania.

Technology

• October 25 – Hugo A. F. Abt is granted a patent for his design of bascule bridge.
• The vibraphone in its original form is invented in the United States.

Institutions

• Journalist E. W. Scripps and biologist William Emerson Ritter found Science Service, later renamed Society for Science and the Public, in the United States with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific developments.

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Physics – Albert Einstein
  • Chemistry – Frederick Soddy
  • Physiology or Medicine – not awarded

Births

• January 18 – Yoichiro Nambu (died 2015), Japanese-American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• March 11 – Léopold Reichling (died 2009), Luxembourg biologist and naturalist.
• April 21 – John R. Huizenga (died 2014), American nuclear physicist.
• April 30 – Ralph A. Lewin (died 2008), Anglo-American biologist, "the father of green algae genetics".
• May 18 – Olgierd Zienkiewicz (died 2009), British civil engineer.
• June 9 – Forrest Bird (died 2015), American biomedical engineer.
• June 14 – George Rédei (died 2008), Hungarian biologist.
• June 15 – Gavriil Ilizarov (died 1992), Polish-born orthopedic surgeon.
• June 26 – Anne Beloff-Chain (died 1991), British biochemist.
• July 4 – Aron Arthur Moscona (died 2009), American developmental biologist.
• October 5 – Mahlon Hoagland (died 2009), American biochemist, discoverer of transfer RNA (tRNA).
• October 21 – Victor A. McKusick (died 2008), American "father of genetic medicine".

Deaths

• March 29 – John Burroughs (born 1837), American naturalist.
• October 23 – John Boyd Dunlop (born 1840), British inventor.
• December 12 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt (born 1868), American astronomer.