1978 in science

List of years in science (Table)
… 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 … … 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s … … 19th century 20th century 21st century …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more

The year 1978 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Computer science

• February 16 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
• The RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography, based on the factoring problem, is first publicly described by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman.

Geophysics

• James Byerlee determines Byerlee's law which gives the stress circumstances in the Earth's crust at which fracturing along a geological fault takes place.

History of science

• October 17 – James Burke's history of science series Connections first airs, on BBC Television in the United Kingdom (with accompanying book).

Awards

• Fields Prize in Mathematics: Pierre Deligne, Charles Fefferman, Grigory Margulis and Daniel Quillen
• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Arno Allan Penzias, Robert Woodrow Wilson
  • Chemistry – Peter D. Mitchell
  • Medicine – Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans, Hamilton O. Smith
• Turing Award – Robert Floyd

Deaths

• January 14 – Kurt Gödel (b. 1906), American mathematician.
• March 9 – Gaston Julia (b. 1893), French mathematician.
• March 23 – Haim Ernst Wertheimer (b. 1893) Jewish biochemist.
• March 31 – Charles Best (b. 1899), Canadian medical scientist.
• July 22 – André Chapelon (b. 1892), French steam locomotive designer.
• September 15 – Willy Messerschmitt (b. 1898), German aircraft engineer.
• November 15 – Margaret Mead (b. 1901), American cultural anthropologist.