1947 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| List of years in science (Table) |
|---|
| Related time period or subjects |
| Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more |
The year 1947 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Contents |
[edit] 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.[1]
[edit] Astronomy and space exploration
- February 12 - Sikhote-Alin meteorite falls to earth in Siberia, the largest iron meteorite known to have impacted.[2]
- February 20 - The first living things sent into space (and returned) are fruit flies, accompanied by rye and cotton seeds, aboard a U.S.-launched V2 rocket which reaches an altitude of 68 miles (109 km).[3][4][5]
[edit] 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.[6][7]
- David Lack publishes Darwin's Finches.
[edit] 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",[8] probably the first video game.
- July 29 - After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, one of the world's first digital computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.[9]
- August 18 - Official start of construction of Automatic Computing Engine in the United Kingdom.
- September 9 - A moth 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."[10][11]
- October - First recorded use of the word computer in its modern sense, referring to an electronic digital machine.[12]
[edit] Medicine
- The first antithyroid drug, propylthiouracil, is introduced in the United States.[13]
[edit] Physics
- June 2 - The Shelter Island Conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics convenes in New York.[14]
- 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.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Births
- January 29 - Linda B. Buck, American biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2004.
[edit] Deaths
- 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.
- December 1 - G. H. Hardy (born 1877), English mathematician.[16]
- December 17 - J. N. Brønsted (born 1879), Danish physical chemist.
[edit] References
- ^ "Wood Raft Makes 4,300-Mile Voyage". This Day in History. BBC. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/8/7. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ Orton, O. Richard (1998). Rocks From Space (2nd ed.). Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing. p. 103. ISBN 0878423737.
- ^ "Upper Air Rocket Summary V-2 No. 20". http://www.postwarv2.com/usa/ws/uars/uars20.html. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
- ^ "The Beginnings of Research in Space Biology at the Air Force Missile Development Center, 1946-1952". History of Research in Space Biology and Biodynamics. NASA. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008. http://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part1.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "V-2 Firing Tables". White Sands Missile Range. Archived from the original on 2008-01-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20080125175018/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/FactSheets/V2/v-2tab.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "The swifts in the tower". Oxford University Museum of Natural History. http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/visiting/swifts/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
- ^ Lack, Andrew; Overall, Roy (2002). The Museum Swifts: the story of the swifts in the tower of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Oxford University Museum of Natural History. ISBN 0954272609.
- ^ US 2455992 Granted 14 December 1948.
- ^ "July 29, 1947". Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/facts/10/40900528/July-29-1947-After-being-shut-off-on. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ "bug:n.". The Jargon File. http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/bug.html. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
- ^ "Log Book With Computer Bug". National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=30. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
- ^ "computer, n.". Oxford English Dictionary online version. Oxford University Press. September 2011. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/37975?redirectedFrom=computer#eid. Retrieved 2011-11-29. subscription or UK public library membership required
- ^ Skugor, Mario; Wilder, Jesse Bryant (2009). The Cleveland Clinic Guide to Thyroid Disorders. New York: Kaplan Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4277-9969-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=hD7FLxSXcDUC&pg=PA71&dq=propylthiouracil+introduced+1947#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
- ^ "The Shelter Island Conference". The National Academies. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/archives/shelterisland.html. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ "Nobel Laureates 1947." Nobelprize.
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: Dec 1947 4a 204 Cambridge – Godfrey H. Hardy, aged 70.
