1931 in science

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The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Chemistry

• Harold Urey and associates at Columbia University demonstrate the existence of heavy water.

Mathematics

• January - Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik.

Technology

• May 27 - Swiss-born scientist Auguste Piccard, taking off from Augsburg, Germany, reaches a record altitude of 15,785 m (51,788 ft) in a balloon with a pressurized gondola, gathering data on the upper atmosphere and measuring cosmic rays.
• László Bíró first exhibits his ballpoint pen, in Budapest.
• George Beauchamp invents the electric guitar.

Other events

• 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

• March 25 - John A. Eddy (died 2009), American astronomer.
• August 30 - Jack Swigert (died 1982), American astronaut.
• October 12 - Ole-Johan Dahl (died 2002), Norwegian computer scientist, pioneer of object-oriented programming.

Deaths

• February 11 - Sir Charles Parsons (born 1854), British inventor of the steam turbine.
• 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), British microbiologist.