Editing 1902 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1902|science}}
{{Science year nav|1902}}

The year '''1902 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Aeronautics==
* May 15 – [[Lyman Gilmore]] claims to have flown his [[steam engine|steam-powered]] [[fixed-wing aircraft]], although his proof is supposedly destroyed in a 1935 fire.

==Chemistry==
* [[Hermann Emil Fischer]] and [[Joseph von Mering]] discover that [[barbitone]] (barbital or Veronal) is an effective [[hypnotic]] agent.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fischer|first1=E. H.|last2=Mering|first2=J.|title=Ueber eine neue Classe von Schlafmitteln|journal=Therapie der Gegenwart|volume=5|pages=97–101|year=1903|language=German|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NV0DAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Therapie+der+Gegenwart%22+1903|accessdate=2010-09-13}}</ref> It becomes the first commercially marketed [[barbiturate]], being used as a treatment for [[insomnia]] from 1903.
* [[Auguste Verneuil]] develops the [[Verneuil process]] for making synthetic [[Ruby|rubies]].
* German chemist [[Wilhelm Ostwald]] develops and [[patent]]s the [[Ostwald process]] for making [[nitric acid]].

==Earth sciences==
* April–August – Eruption of [[Mount Pelée]] in [[Martinique]].
* [[Mercalli intensity scale]] introduced as a [[seismic scale]] for [[earthquake]]s by [[Giuseppe Mercalli]].

==Exploration==
* July 14 - Peruvian explorer [[Agustín Lizárraga]] rediscovers the Inca citadel of [[Machu Picchu]], Peru
* December 30 – [[Discovery Expedition|''Discovery'' Expedition]]: British explorers [[Robert Falcon Scott|Scott]], [[Ernest Shackleton|Shackleton]] and [[Edward Adrian Wilson|Wilson]] reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.

==Genetics==
* [[Walter Sutton]] (in the United States) and [[Theodor Boveri]] (in Germany) independently develop the [[Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory]], explaining the mechanism underlying the laws of [[Mendelian inheritance]] by identifying [[chromosome]]s as the carriers of [[gene]]tic material.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1902_Boveri_Sutton.php|title=Genetics and Genomics Timeline – 1902: Theodor Boveri (1862-1915) and Walter Sutton (1877-1916) propose that chromosomes bear hereditary factors in accordance with Mendelian laws|work=Genome News Network|publisher=J. Craig Venter Institute|year=2004|accessdate=2011-12-21}}</ref>

==History of science==
* May 17 – [[Archaeologist]] [[Valerios Stais]] identifies the [[Antikythera mechanism]], now considered to be the oldest known [[analog computer]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Haughton|first=Brian|title=Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=awF5hqJpErAC&pg=PA43|accessdate=2011-05-16|year=2006|location=Franklin Lakes, New Jersey|publisher=Career Press|isbn=978-1-56414-897-1|pages=43–44}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* June 16 – [[Bertrand Russell]] writes to [[Gottlob Frege]] informing him of the problem in [[naive set theory]] that will become known as [[Russell's paradox]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ktC0UrG4V8C&pg=PA253|page=253|year=1997|title=The Frege Reader|isbn=978-0-631-19445-3|first=Gottlob|last=Frege|editor=Beaney, Michael|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell}}</ref>
* [[Gyula Farkas (natural scientist)|Gyula Farkas]] publishes the first proof of [[Farkas' lemma]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Gyula|last=Farkas|year=1894|title=A Fourier-féle mechanikai elv alkamazásai|journal=Mathematikai és Természettudományi Értesítő|volume=12|pages=457–472}}</ref>
* [[Henri Lebesgue]] introduces the theory of [[Lebesgue integration]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-147-4|page=77}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* January 1 – [[Nurses Registration Act 1901]] comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of [[nurse]]s. On January 10, [[Ellen Dougherty]] becomes the world's first registered nurse.
* February – A commission on [[yellow fever]] in the United States announces that the disease is carried by [[mosquitoes]].

==Paleontology==
* Remains of the second ''[[Tyrannosaurus|Tyrannosaurus rex]]'' specimen, the first recognized as such, are excavated by [[Barnum Brown]] in the [[Hell Creek Formation]] of [[Montana]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.strangescience.net/brown.htm|work=Strange Science|title=Barnum Brown|date=2015-06-14|accessdate=2017-12-12}}</ref>

==Physics==
* [[Oliver Heaviside]] and [[Arthur E. Kennelly]] independently predict the existence of what will become known as the [[Kennelly-Heaviside Layer]] of the [[ionosphere]].
* [[James Jeans]] finds the length scale required for gravitational perturbations to grow in a static nearly homogeneous medium.
* [[Philipp Lenard]] observes that maximum [[Photoelectric effect|photoelectron]] energies are independent of illuminating intensity but depend on frequency.
* [[Gilbert N. Lewis]] develops the [[cubical atom]] atomic model.
* [[Theodor Svedberg]] suggests that fluctuations in molecular bombardment cause the [[Brownian motion]].

==Physiology==
* [[William Bayliss]] and [[Ernest Starling]] make the first discovery of a hormone, [[secretin]].

==Psychology==
* [[Vienna Psychoanalytic Society]] begins to meet as the Wednesday Psychological Society in [[Sigmund Freud]]'s apartment.

==Technology==
* January 1 – [[Nathan Stubblefield]] demonstrates his [[Mobile phone|wireless telephone]] device in [[Kentucky]].
* April 13 – A new land speed record of {{convert|74|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} is set in [[Nice]], France, by [[Léon Serpollet]] driving a steam car.
* July 17 – [[Willis Carrier]] devises the first modern [[air conditioning]] system for a plant in New York City.
* December 10 – [[Aswan Low Dam|Old Aswan Dam]], designed by [[William Willcocks]], completed across the [[River Nile]] in [[Egypt]].
* First [[Vierendeel bridge]] built, across the [[Scheldt]] at [[Avelgem]] in Belgium.

==Zoology==
* October – First [[Mountain gorilla]]s (''Gorilla beringei beringei'') discovered by Captain [[Robert von Beringe]] in [[German East Africa]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Schaller|first=G. B.|year=1963|title=The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-73635-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mountaingorillae00scha}}</ref>

==Institutions==
* January 28 – The [[Carnegie Institution of Washington|Carnegie Institution]] is founded in Washington, D.C., to promote scientific research with a $10 million gift from [[Andrew Carnegie]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Hendrik Lorentz]], [[Pieter Zeeman]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Hermann Emil Fischer]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Ronald Ross]]
* [[Hughes Medal]] first awarded by the [[Royal Society]] of London to [[J. J. Thomson]]
* June 26 – First recipients of the [[Order of Merit]] in the United Kingdom include
** [[John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh|Lord Rayleigh]]
** [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|Lord Kelvin]]
** [[Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister|Lord Lister]]
** Sir [[William Huggins]]

==Births==
* February 10 – [[Walter Houser Brattain]] (died [[1987 in science|1987]]), American [[physicist]].
* February 16 – [[Zhang Yuzhe]] (died [[1986 in science|1986]]), Chinese [[astronomer]].
* May 25 – [[Calvin Souther Fuller]] (died [[1994 in science|1994]]), American [[physical chemist]] at [[AT&T Bell Laboratories]].
* June 14 – [[Paul Lester Errington]] (died [[1962 in science|1962]]), American conservationist.
* June 15 – [[Erik Erikson]], né Salomonsen (died [[1994 in science|1994]]), German-born [[psychologist]].
* August 8 – [[Paul Dirac]] (died [[1984 in science|1984]]), English physicist.
* August 13 – [[Felix Wankel]] (died [[1988 in science|1988]]), German mechanical engineer.
* November 2 – [[Sergey Lebedev (scientist)|Sergey Lebedev]] (died [[1974 in science|1974]]), Russian computer scientist.
* [[Remziye Hisar]], (died [[1992 in science|1992]]), Turkish chemist.

==Deaths==
* January 23 – [[Alfred William Bennett]], British botanist (born [[1833 in science|1833]])<ref>{{cite book|title=Who was who: A Companion to "Who's Who"|publisher=A. & C. Black|year=1967|page=57}}</ref>
* February 11 – [[Caroline Rosenberg]] (born [[1810 in science|1810]]) Danish botanist.
* March 6 – [[Moritz Kaposi]] (born [[1837 in science|1837]]), Hungarian [[dermatologist]].
* April 12 – [[Alfred Cornu]] (born [[1841 in science|1841]]), French physicist<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Cornu, Marie Alfred|volume=7}}</ref>
* May 26 – [[Almon Strowger]] (born [[1839 in science|1839]]), American [[telecommunications engineer]].
* September 5 – [[Rudolf Virchow]] (born [[1821 in science|1821]]), German [[pathologist]] and [[biologist]].
* September 18 – [[Thorborg Rappe]] (born [[1832 in science|1832]]), Swedish pioneer in the education of students with Intellectual disability. 
* November 12 – [[William Henry Barlow]] (born [[1812 in science|1812]]), English railway [[civil engineer]].
* December 22 – [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]] (born [[1840 in science|1840]]), German [[sexologist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1902 In Science}}
[[Category:1902 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1900s in science]]