Editing 1903 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1903|science}}
{{Science year nav|1903}}

The year '''1903 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Aeronautics==
[[File:First flight2.jpg|thumb|325px|December 17 – [[Wright brothers]]' first flight]]
* June 27–19-year-old American socialite [[Aida de Acosta]] becomes the first woman to fly a powered aircraft solo when she pilots [[Alberto Santos-Dumont|Santos-Dumont]]'s motorized [[dirigible]], "No. 9", from Paris to [[Château de Bagatelle]] in France.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/wmntrans2.pdf|title=Women in Transportation – Changing America's History: Reference Materials|publisher=[[United States Department of Transportation]]|page=10 |access-date=2012-08-21 |date=March 1998}}</ref>
* December 17 – First documented, successful, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air [[aircraft]] with a [[petrol engine]] by [[Orville Wright]] in the ''[[Wright Flyer]]'' at [[Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina]].
* [[Konstantin Tsiolkovsky]] begins a series of papers discussing the use of [[liquid fuel]] [[rocket]]s to reach outer space, [[space suit]]s, and colonization of the [[Solar System]].

==Biology==
* The type specimen of the [[vampire squid]] (''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'') is described by [[Carl Chun]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chun |first=Karl |url=http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/14876 |title=Aus den tiefen des weltmeeres |publisher=G. Fischer |year=1903 |location=Jena |pages=88 |language=de |trans-title=From the depths of the ocean |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.14876}}</ref>
* [[Fauna and Flora International]] is founded as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire by a group of British naturalists and American statesmen in Africa.

==Chemistry==
* [[Peter Cooper Hewitt]] demonstrates the [[mercury-vapour lamp]].
* [[Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet]] invents [[chromatography]], an important analytic technique.
* The [[Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights|International Committee of Atomic Weights]] publishes the inaugural atomic weights report.

==Mathematics==
* October – [[Frank Nelson Cole]] demonstrates that the [[Mersenne number]] 2<sup>67</sup>-1, or M<sub>67</sub>, is [[Composite number|composite]] by [[Factorization|factoring]] it as 193,707,721 * 761,838,257,287.<ref>At a meeting of the [[American Mathematical Society]] in New York City.</ref>
* [[Fast Fourier transform]] algorithm presented by [[Carle David Tolmé Runge]].{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}
* [[Edmund Georg Hermann Landau]] gives considerably simpler proof of the prime number theorem.

==Physics==
* [[George Darwin]] and [[John Joly]] claim that radioactivity is partially responsible for the Earth's heat.
* [[Prosper-René Blondlot]] claims to have detected [[N ray]]s.

==Physiology and medicine==
* March–April – [[David Bruce (microbiologist)|David Bruce]] identifies the parasitic ''[[Trypanosoma brucei|Trypanosoma]]'' [[protist]] as the source of [[African trypanosomiasis]] ("sleeping sickness").<ref>{{cite journal|last=Duggan|first=A. J.|title=Bruce and the African Trypanosomes|journal=The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene|volume=26|issue=5 Pt 2 Suppl|pages=1080–3|year=1977|pmid=20787|url=http://www.ajtmh.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=20787|doi=10.4269/ajtmh.1977.26.1080|url-access=subscription}}{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
* May 10 – [[Antoni Leśniowski]] publishes the first article implicating what will later be known as [[Crohn's disease]], in the [[Poland|Polish]] weekly medical newspaper ''Medycyna''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lichtarowicz|first1=A. M.|last2=Mayberry|first2=J. F.|title=Antoni Lésniowski and his contribution to regional enteritis (Crohn's disease)|journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]]|volume=81|issue=8|pages=468–470|pmid=3047387|date=August 1988|pmc=1291720|doi=10.1177/014107688808100817}}</ref>
* [[Alfred Walter Campbell]] divides the [[cytoarchitecture]] of the human brain into 14 areas.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Campbell|first=A. W.|year=1903|title=Histological studies on cerebral localisation|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London|volume=72|issue=477–486|pages=488–492|doi=10.1098/rspl.1903.0077|s2cid=145403326|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1571278}}</ref>
* [[Ernest Fourneau]] synthesizes and [[patent]]s [[Amylocaine]], the first synthetic [[local anesthetic]], under the name ''Stovaine'' at the [[Pasteur Institute]].<ref>"Stovaïne, anesthésique local". ''Bull. Sc. pharmacolog.'' '''10''' (1904): 141.</ref>
* [[Willem Einthoven]] discovers [[electrocardiography]] (ECG/EKG)
* [[Percy Furnivall]] carries out the first known case of [[cardiac surgery]] in Britain.
* The 12th and final edition of Dr [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]]'s ''Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie'' ("Sexual Psychopathy: a Clinical-Forensic Study") published during the author's lifetime introduces the term ''paedophilia erotica''.
* Formal opening of the [[Johnston Laboratories]] at the [[University of Liverpool]], [[Liverpool]], England.

==Technology==
* November – [[Windscreen wiper]] for automobiles is first [[patent]]ed by [[Mary Anderson (inventor)|Mary Anderson]] in the United States.
* December 15 – Italo Marchiony from New York City patents an improved design of apparatus for baking [[ice cream cone]]s.<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=746971|status=patent|title=Mold|gdate=1903-12-15|inventor=Italo Marchiony|url=http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=746971&PageNum=0}}</ref>
* The first [[diesel engine|diesel]]-powered ships are launched, both for inland waters: ''Petite-Pierre'' in France, powered by Dyckhoff-built diesels, and the tanker ''[[Vandal (tanker)|Vandal]]'' in Russia, powered by [[Sweden|Swedish]]-built diesels with an electrical transmission.
* [[Norwegians|Norwegian]] engineer [[Ægidius Elling]] builds the first [[gas turbine]] to generate power, using a [[centrifugal compressor]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Engines – How Engines Work. Part 2: A Short History and Timeline of Gas Turbine Engines|work=About.com.Inventors|url=http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blenginegasturbine.htm|accessdate=2012-01-31|archive-date=2019-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925002222/https://www.thoughtco.com/inventions-4133303|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Laminated glass]] is invented by Edouard Benedictus.
* [[Baker valve gear]] for [[steam locomotive]]s is first patented in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/AD-BAKER-COMPANY-INCIDENTS.aspx?page=4|title=Remembering the A.D. Baker Company|last=Blake|first=LeRoy W.|date=May–June 1979|journal=Farm Collector|page=4|accessdate=2012-07-09|archive-date=2012-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510141722/http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/AD-BAKER-COMPANY-INCIDENTS.aspx?page=4|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The [[Spiral watertube boiler#Lune Valley boiler|Lune Valley boiler]] is patented by John G. A. Kitchen and Ludlow Perkins.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Paul N.|last=Wilson|title=J. G. A. Kitchen, 1869-1940, and his inventions|journal= Transactions of the Newcomen Society|volume=45|year=1972|pages=15–43|doi=10.1179/tns.1972.002}}</ref>

==Institutions==
* June 28 – [[Deutsches Museum]] founded in Munich.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Museum|publisher=Deutsches Museum|url=https://www.deutsches-museum.de/en/museumsinsel/ausstellung/history-of-the-museum|accessdate=2023-02-16}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Henri Becquerel|Antoine Henri Becquerel]], [[Pierre Curie]], and [[Marie Curie]]<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC – History – Marie Curie |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml |website=www.bbc.co.uk |accessdate=20 January 2020}}</ref>
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Svante Arrhenius|Svante August Arrhenius]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Niels Ryberg Finsen]]

==Births==
* January 22 – [[Fritz Houtermans]] (died [[1966 in science|1966]]), Danzig-born Dutch [[physicist]].
* January 27 – [[John Eccles (neurophysiologist)|John Eccles]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), Australian-born [[psychologist]].
* January 28 – [[Kathleen Lonsdale]], née Yardley (died [[1971 in science|1971]]), [[Ireland|Irish-born]] [[X-ray crystallography|crystallographer]].
* February 2 – [[Bartel Leendert van der Waerden]] (died [[1996 in science|1996]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[mathematician]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Sets and Extensions in the Twentieth Century|date=2012|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780080930664|page=175|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBrWwKVbmMUC&pg=PA175}}</ref>
* February 22 – [[Frank P. Ramsey]] (died [[1930 in science|1930]]), English mathematician.
* April 6 – "Doc" [[Harold Eugene Edgerton]] ("Papa Flash", died [[1990 in science|1990]]), American [[electrical engineer]].
* April 9 – [[Gregory Goodwin Pincus]] (died [[1967 in science|1967]]), American [[biologist]], co-inventor of the [[combined oral contraceptive pill]].
* April 25 – [[Andrey Kolmogorov]] (died [[1987 in science|1987]]), Russian mathematician.
* May 2 – [[Benjamin Spock]] (died [[1998 in science|1998]]), American [[pediatrician]] and writer.
* May 18 – [[Frits Warmolt Went]] (died [[1990 in science|1990]]), Dutch-born American botanist.
* June 14 – [[Alonzo Church]] (died [[1995 in science|1995]]), American mathematician.
* July 16 – [[Irmgard Flügge-Lotz]] (died [[1974 in science|1974]]), German-American mathematician and [[aerospace engineer]]
* August 7 – [[Louis Leakey]] (died [[1972 in science|1972]]), [[British East Africa]]n [[paleoanthropologist]].
* October 4 – [[Cyril Stanley Smith]] (died [[1992 in science|1992]]), English-born metallurgist.
* October 5 – [[M. King Hubbert]] (died [[1989 in science|1989]]), American [[geophysicist]].
* October 10 – [[Bei Shizhang]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), [[China|Chinese]] biologist and founder of the [[Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences]].
* November 7 – [[Konrad Lorenz]] (died 1989), [[Austrians|Austrian]] [[zoologist]].
* November 27 – [[Lars Onsager]] (died [[1976 in science|1976]]), Norwegian-born [[chemist]].
* December 19 – [[George Davis Snell]] (died 1996), American mouse [[geneticist]] and basic transplant [[immunologist]].<ref>{{cite web|title=George Davis Snell – American geneticist|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Davis-Snell|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|accessdate=21 February 2018}}</ref>
* December 28 – [[John von Neumann]] (died [[1957 in science|1957]]), Hungarian-born mathematician.

==Deaths==
* February 1 – [[Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet]] (born [[1819 in science|1819]]), Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist.
* February 7 – [[James Glaisher]] (born [[1809 in science|1809]]), English [[meteorologist]] and balloonist.
* March 28 – [[Émile Baudot]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), French telegraph engineer.
* April 28 – [[J. Willard Gibbs]] (born [[1839 in science|1839]]), American physical chemist.
* June 14 – [[Carl Gegenbaur]] (born [[1826 in science|1826]]), German [[anatomist]].<ref>{{cite website |title=Gegenbaur, Carl (1826-1903)  |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb103532093 |website=catalogue.bnf.fr |publisher=Bibliothèque Nationale de France |access-date=6 February 2021 |language=fr}}</ref>
* July 21 – [[Henri Alexis Brialmont]] (born [[1821 in science|1821]]), [[Belgians|Belgian]] military engineer.
* August 2 – [[Edmond Nocard]] (born [[1850 in science|1850]]), French [[veterinarian]] and [[microbiologist]].
* August 27 – [[Kusumoto Ine]] (born [[1827 in science|1827]]), pioneering Japanese woman physician.
* November 8 – [[Vasily Dokuchaev]] (born [[1846 in science|1846]]), Russian [[geologist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1903 In Science}}
[[Category:1903 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1900s in science]]