1940 in science
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The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Contents |
[edit] Biochemistry
- August 24 - Howard Florey and a team including Ernst Chain, Arthur Duncan Gardner, Norman Heatley, M. Jennings, J. Orr-Ewing and G. Sanders at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, publish their laboratory results showing the in vivo bactericidal action of penicillin. They have also purified the drug.[1][2]
[edit] Biology
- February 2 - The first transposons are discovered in maize (Zea mays, aka corn) by Barbara McClintock.
[edit] Chemistry
- February 27 - The radioactive isotope carbon-14 is discovered by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben.
- Astatine synthesized by Corson, MacKenzie, and Segre.
- Neptunium, the first transuranic element, synthesized by McMillan and Abelson.
- Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson publish the standard text The Chemical Composition of Foods.[3]
[edit] Computer science
- January 8 - In the history of computing hardware, Bell Labs' Complex Number Calculator, a relay-based calculator for complex numbers, is completed under the direction of George Stibitz.[4]
- May–August - Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman at the United Kingdom Government Code and Cypher School, Bletchley Park, design the British Bombes to help decrypt Wehrmacht Enigma machine signals.[5]
[edit] Physics
- January 5 - FM radio demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
- Cavity Magnetron invented by John Randall and Harry Boot.
[edit] Technology
- November 7 - The new Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses under wind pressure.
[edit] Births
- April 1 - Wangari Muta Mary Jo Maathai (died 2011), Kenyan biologist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
- June 22 - Daniel Quillen (died 2011), American mathematician.
- November 26 - Enrico Bombieri, Italian-born mathematician.
[edit] Deaths
- March 9 - Robert Gunther (born 1869), English historian of science.
- April 13 - Pierre Marie (born 1853), French neurologist.
- November 8 - Arthur Vierendeel (born 1852), Belgian civil engineer.
- December 16 - Eugène Dubois (born 1858), Dutch paleoanthropologist.
[edit] References
- ^ Drews, Jürgen (March 2000). "Drug Discovery: a Historical Perspective". Science 287 (5460): 1960–4. doi:10.1126/science.287.5460.1960. PMID 10720314.
- ^ Robertson, Patrick (1974). The Shell Book of Firsts. London: Ebury Press. p. 124.
- ^ Whitehead, Roger (2004). "Widdowson, Elsie May (1906–2000)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74313. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74313. Retrieved 2011-08-10. subscription or UK public library membership required
- ^ US patent 2668661, "Complex Computer", issued 1954-02-09, assigned to AT&T
- ^ Smith, Michael (2007). Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park. Pan Grand Strategy Series (rev. ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-41929-1.
