Editing 1968 in science (section)

==Medicine==
* January 2 – Dr. [[Christiaan Barnard]] performs the second successful human [[heart transplant]], in [[South Africa]], on [[Philip Blaiberg]], who survives for nineteen months.
* November – Outbreak of acute [[gastroenteritis]] among schoolchildren in [[Norwalk, Ohio]], caused by "Norwalk agent", the first identified [[norovirus]].
* Publication of a [[Harvard Medical School|Harvard]] committee report on irreversible coma establishes a paradigm for defining [[brain death]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=A definition of irreversible coma: report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to examine the definition of brain death|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]|url=http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/205/6/337.short|volume=205|year=1968|pages=337–340|issue=6|doi=10.1001/jama.205.6.337|pmid=5694976 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Calixto|last=Machado|title=The first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor|journal=[[Neurology (journal)|Neurology]]|year=2005|volume=64|pages=1938–42|issue=11|doi=10.1212/01.wnl.0000163515.09793.cb|pmid=15955947|s2cid=11058683 }}</ref> France becomes the first European country to adopt brain death as a legal definition (or indicator) of death.
* Doctors perform the first successful [[bone marrow transplant]], to treat [[severe combined immunodeficiency]] (SCID).
* [[DiGeorge syndrome]] is first described by [[pediatric endocrinologist]] [[Angelo DiGeorge]].<ref>{{citation|last=DiGeorge|first=A. M.|title=Congenital absence of the thymus and its immunologic consequences: concurrence with congenital hypoparathyroidism|volume=IV|issue=1|location=White Plains, NY|publisher=March of Dimes-Birth Defects Foundation|year=1968|pages=116–21}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2459/01.JCM.0000203848.90267.3e|first1=Angelo|last2=Sarkozy|last1=Restivo|first2=Anna|last3=Digilio|first3=Maria Cristina|last4=Dallapiccola|pmid=16645366|first4=Bruno|last5=Marino|first5=Bruno|title=22q11 Deletion syndrome: a review of some developmental biology aspects of the cardiovascular system|journal=Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine|volume=7|issue=2|pages=77–85|year=2006|s2cid=25905258 |url=http://www.jcardiovascularmedicine.com/pt/re/jcm/abstract.01244665-200602000-00001.htm;jsessionid=K0GCjVnhWKskr2CxfrkZQlw2zDpw9lQTLJzcrSJFmNlGp7L8vQdK!713060492!181195629!8091!-1|url-access=subscription}}</ref>