Editing 1959 in science (section)

==Medicine==
* July – The Japanese medical research group studying [[Minamata disease]] comes to the conclusion that [[mercury (element)|mercury]] is the cause.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu35ie/uu35ie0c.htm|title=Minamata disease|publisher=[[United Nations University]]|accessdate=2010-10-17}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Murray]] performs the world's first successful [[allotransplantation]].<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}}</ref>
* [[Georges Mathé]], a [[French people|French]] [[oncologist]], performs the first [[bone marrow transplant]] on five [[Yugoslavia]]n nuclear workers whose own marrow has been damaged by intense irradiation caused by a [[criticality accident]] at the [[Vinča Nuclear Institute]], but all of these transplants are [[Transplant rejection|rejected]].<ref>{{cite web|last=McLaughlin|first=Thomas P. |title=A Review of Criticality Accidents|publisher=[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]]|work=CSRIC|url=http://www.csirc.net/docs/reports/la-13638.pdf|page=96|quote=Radiation doses were intense, being estimated at 205, 320, 410, 415, 422, and 433 [[Röntgen equivalent man|rem]].74 Of the six persons present, one died and the other five recovered after severe cases of radiation sickness.|date=May 2000|display-authors=etal|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926101253/http://www.csirc.net/docs/reports/la-13638.pdf|archive-date=2007-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/1958YUG1.html|title=Vinca reactor accident, 1958|first=Wm. Robert|last=Johnston|work=Database of radiological incidents and related events – Johnston's Archive|date=2005-09-14|accessdate=2012-07-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Georges Mathé, Transplant Pioneer, Dies at 88|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/health/research/21mathe.html|date=2010-10-20|last=Martin|first=Douglas}}</ref>
* First known case of human [[HIV]], in the [[Belgian Congo]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Pence|first=G. E.|year=2008|chapter=Preventing the Global Spread of AIDS|title=Medical Ethics: Accounts of the Cases That Shaped and Define Medical Ethics|url=https://archive.org/details/classiccasesinme0000penc|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/classiccasesinme0000penc/page/330 330]|location=New York|publisher=McGraw-Hill}}</ref>