Editing 1907 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1907|science}}
{{Science year nav|1907}}

The year '''1907 in science''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] publishes the book ''[[Is Mars Habitable?]]'', a refutation of [[Percival Lowell]]'s theory of [[mars canals]], and the first work in the emerging field of [[astrobiology]].

==Chemistry==
* June 6 – [[Persil]] [[laundry detergent]] is first marketed by [[Henkel]] of [[Düsseldorf]], Germany, the first to combine a bleaching agent ([[sodium perborate]]) with a base washing agent ([[sodium silicate]]) commercially.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.henkel.com/about-henkel/2006-18539-100-years-of-persil-11029.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214101029/http://www.henkel.com/about-henkel/2006-18539-100-years-of-persil-11029.htm|archive-date=2010-12-14|title=100 Years of Persil|publisher=Henkel AG|date=2006-12-22|access-date=2016-09-17}}</ref>
* [[Hermann Emil Fischer|Emil Fischer]] artificially synthesizes [[peptide]] [[amino acid]] chains and thereby shows that amino acids in [[protein]]s are connected by amino group-acid group bonds.
* [[Hermann Staudinger]] prepares the first synthetic [[Beta-lactam|β-lactam]].
* [[Georges Urbain]] discovers [[Lutetium]] (from ''[[Lutetia]]'', the ancient name of Paris).

==Geology==
* January 14 – [[1907 Kingston earthquake]]: [[Earthquake]] in [[Kingston, Jamaica]].
* c. March 28 – [[Volcanic eruption]] of [[Ksudach]] in the [[Kamchatka Peninsula]].
* [[Bertram Boltwood]] proposes that the amount of lead in uranium and thorium ores might be used to determine the Earth's age and crudely dates some rocks to have ages between 410–2200 million years.
* The [[Moine Thrust Belt]] in [[Scotland]] is identified by [[Ben Peach]] and [[John Horne]], one of the first to be discovered.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peach, B. N.|title=The Geological Structure of the North-West Highlands of Scotland|series=Memoirs of the [[Geological Survey of Great Britain]], Scotland|location=Glasgow|publisher=H.M.S.O|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Highlands Controversy: Constructing Geological Knowledge through Fieldwork in Nineteenth-Century Britain|last=Oldroyd|first=David R.|isbn=978-0-226-62634-5|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1990}}</ref>
* The rare [[phosphate mineral]] [[tarbuttite]] is first discovered at [[Kabwe|Broken Hill]], [[Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Tarbuttite|url=http://www.handbookofmineralogy.com/pdfs/tarbuttite.pdf|work=Handbook of Mineralogy|publisher=Mineral Data Publishing|accessdate=2012-07-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Spencer|first=L. J.|title=On Hopeite and other zinc phosphates and associated minerals from the Broken Hill mines, North-Western Rhodesia|journal=Mineralogical Magazine|date=April 1908|volume=15|issue=68|pages=1–38|url=http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_15/15-68-1.pdf|publisher=The Mineralogical Society|accessdate=2012-07-19|doi=10.1180/minmag.1908.015.68.02|bibcode=1908MinM...15....1S|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106184049/http://www.minersoc.org/pages/Archive-MM/Volume_15/15-68-1.pdf|archive-date=2014-01-06|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Ludovic Mrazek]] describes and names [[diapir]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/S0021-9673(00)94556-4|title=Tswett's letters to Claparède|journal=Journal of Chromatography A|volume=440|page=509|year=1988|last=Hais|first=I. M.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0QqRBrPs5YC&pg=PA11|pages=11–12|title=Continental Drift: Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures|isbn=9781420034523|author=Roman|first=Constantin|year=2000}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* [[Paul Koebe]] conjectures the result of the [[Koebe quarter theorem]].

==Medicine==
* [[Paul Ehrlich]] develops a chemotherapeutic cure for [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]].
* [[George Soper]] identifies "[[Typhoid Mary]]" Mallon as an [[asymptomatic carrier]] of [[typhoid]] in [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Soper|first=George A.|title=The work of a chronic typhoid germ distributor|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]|volume=48|issue=24|pages=2019–22|date=15 June 1907|doi=10.1001/jama.1907.25220500025002d|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1423366|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221191415/https://zenodo.org/record/1423366|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 21, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Dengue fever]] becomes the second disease shown to be caused by a [[virus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Henchal|first1=Erik A.|last2=Putnak|first2=J. Robert|title=The Dengue Viruses|journal=[[Clinical Microbiology Reviews]]|volume=3|issue=4|pages=376–96|date=October 1990|publisher=American Society for Microbiology|pmid=2224837|pmc=358169|url=|doi=10.1128/CMR.3.4.376}}</ref>
* [[Foreign accent syndrome]] is first described by French neurologist [[Pierre Marie]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Marie|first=Pierre|year=1907|title=Presentation de malades atteints d'anarthrie par lesion de l'hemisphere gauche du cerveau|journal=Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société Médicale des Hôpitaux de Paris|volume=1|pages=158–160}}</ref>
* [[Indiana]], in the United States, becomes the world's first legislature to place laws permitting [[compulsory sterilization]] for [[Eugenics in the United States|eugenic]] purposes on the statute book.

==Paleontology==
* October 21 – Jaw of ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' ([[Mauer 1]]) found.<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Otto Schoetensack|first=Otto|last=Schoetensack|title=Der Unterkiefer des Homo heidelbergensis aus den Sanden von Mauer bei Heidelberg|year=1908|location=Leipzig|publisher=Wilhelm Engelmann}}</ref>

==Physics==
* The [[Ehrenfest model]] of [[diffusion]] is proposed by [[Tatyana Afanasyeva|Tatiana]] and [[Paul Ehrenfest]] to explain the [[second law of thermodynamics]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ehrenfest |first=Paul |last2=Ehrenfest |first2=Tatjana |year=1907 |title=Über zwei bekannte Einwände gegen das Boltzmannsche H-Theorem |trans-title=About two well-known objections to Boltzmann's H-theorem |url=https://resolver.sub.uni-hamburg.de/kitodo/PPN891110208_0008/page/341 |journal=[[Physikalische Zeitschrift]] |language=de |volume=8 |pages=311–314 |via=Hamburger Kulturgut Digital}}</ref>
* [[Albert Einstein]] introduces the principle of equivalence of gravitation and inertia and uses it to predict the [[gravitational redshift]].

==Psychology==
* [[Ivan Pavlov]] demonstrates conditioned responses with salivating dogs.
* [[Vladimir Bekhterev]] begins publication of ''Objective Psychology''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vladimir Bekhterev|url=http://www.russia-ic.com/people/education_science/b/348/|work=Russia-IC|accessdate=2011-04-15}}</ref>

==Technology==
* August 10 – [[Peking to Paris]] motor race concludes after 2 months, won by [[Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona|Prince Scipione Borghese]] driving a 7-litre 35/45&nbsp;hp [[Itala (company)|Itala]].
* August 29 – The partially completed [[Quebec Bridge]] collapses.<ref>{{cite web|first=Bruce |last=Ricketts |title=The Collapse of the Quebec City Bridge |url=http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Quebec/quebec_bridge_collapse.htm |work=Mysteries of Canada |accessdate=2011-08-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714144348/http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Quebec/quebec_bridge_collapse.htm |archivedate=2011-07-14 }}</ref>
* October 17 – [[Guglielmo Marconi]] initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power [[longwave]] wireless telegraphy stations in [[Clifden]], Ireland, and [[Glace Bay, Nova Scotia]].
* [[Lee de Forest]] invents the [[triode]] thermionic amplifier, starting the development of [[electronics]] as a practical technology.
* Furuholmen Lighthouse in Sweden is the world's first to be equipped with [[AGA AB|AGA]]'s [[Dalén light]] incorporating [[Gustaf Dalén]]'s invention of the [[sun valve]] which turns the beacon's accumulator gas supply on and off using daylight,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aga.com/web/web2000/com/WPPcom.nsf/pages/History_SunValve|title=History – The Sun Valve|publisher=AGA|accessdate=2012-03-02|first=Magnus|last=Lundahl|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207023511/http://www.aga.com/web/web2000/com/WPPcom.nsf/pages/History_SunValve|archivedate=2012-02-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> and for which Dalén will be awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in [[1912 in science|1912]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1912/dalen-bio.html|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1912: Gustaf Dalén – Biography|work=Nobelprize.org|year=1912|accessdate=2012-03-02}}</ref>
* [[Ole Evinrude]] invents the first practical [[outboard motor]], in the United States.
* [[Rudge-Whitworth]] of [[Coventry]] (England) produce the first detachable wire wheel for automobiles.<ref>{{cite book|author=Georgano, G.N.|title=Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930|location=London|publisher=Grange-Universal|year=1985|author-link=Georgano, G.N}}</ref>
* The [[Autochrome Lumière]] is the first [[color photography]] process marketed.
* James Murray Spangler invents the first [[The Hoover Company|Hoover]] [[vacuum cleaner]] in the United States.
* Samuel Simon [[patent]]s a [[screenprinting]] process in the United Kingdom.

==Zoology==
* [[Carl Hagenbeck]] opens the [[Tierpark Hagenbeck]] in Stellingen, near [[Hamburg]], Germany, the first [[zoo]] to use open moated enclosures, rather than barred cages, to better approximate animals' natural environments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-411-Hagenbeck_Tierpark_und_Tropen-Aquarium-Zoos|title=Hagenbeck Tierpark und Tropen-Aquarium|accessdate=2008-07-22|quote=The founder and his idea Carl Hagenbeck built what no other dared dream of. In 1907, the Hamburg man opened the first barless zoo in the world. As early as the end of the 19th century, this son of a fishmonger had the idea of showing animals no longer caged up but in open viewing enclosures. In his zoo of the future, nothing more than unseen ditches were to separate wild animals from members of the public. Carl Hagenbeck patented this idea in 1896. Nine years later his dream was to come true in Hamburg-Stellingen. The revolutionary open viewing enclosures and panoramas were in fact ridiculed in professional circles but took the public's breath away. Hagenbeck's zoo is considered to have prepared the way for today's wildlife adventure parks.|publisher=Zoo and Aquarium Visitor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221104119/http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-411-Hagenbeck_Tierpark_und_Tropen-Aquarium-Zoos|archive-date=2009-12-21|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo|last=Rothfels|first=Nigel|location=Baltimore|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-8018-6910-2}}</ref>
* December 28 – Last confirmed sighting of a [[Huia]] in New Zealand.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Albert Abraham Michelson]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Eduard Buchner]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran]]
* [[Order of Merit]]: [[Florence Nightingale]]

==Births==
* January 12 – [[Sergei Korolev]] (died [[1966 in science|1966]]), [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]]-born space scientist.
* February 20 – [[Arnold Wilkins]] (died [[1985 in science|1985]]), English pioneer of [[radar]].
* February 26 – [[John Bowlby]] (died [[1990 in science|1990]]), English [[child psychologist]].
* March 4 – [[Rosalind Pitt-Rivers]], née Henley (died 1990), English [[biochemist]].
* March 18 – [[J. Z. Young]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), English [[zoologist]] and [[neurophysiologist]].
* April 15 – [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]] (died [[1988 in science|1988]]), Dutch [[ethology|ethologist]], [[ornithologist]] and [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] laureate.
* June 1
** [[Helen Megaw]] (died [[2002 in science|2002]]), Irish [[X-ray crystallography|crystallographer]].
** [[Frank Whittle]] (died [[1996 in science|1996]]), English [[aeronautical engineer]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituaries: Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-air-commodore-sir-frank-whittle-1309015.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-air-commodore-sir-frank-whittle-1309015.html |archive-date=2022-05-01 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|website=The Independent|accessdate=21 February 2018|date=10 August 1996}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* June 25 – [[Hans Daniel Jensen]] (died [[1973 in science|1973]]), German [[physicist]].
* June 26 – [[Robert Gwyn Macfarlane]] (died [[1987 in science|1987]]), British [[hematologist]].
* July 1 – [[Norman Pirie]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), British [[virologist]].
* July 7 – [[Robert A. Heinlein]] (died 1988), American hard [[science fiction]] author.
* August 30 – [[John Mauchly]] (died [[1980 in science|1980]]), American co-inventor of the [[ENIAC]] [[computer]].
* September 7 – [[Konstantin Petrzhak]] (died 1998), [[Poland|Polish]]-born [[physicist]].
* September 14 – [[Solomon Asch]] (died 1996), [[Poland|Polish]]-born [[social psychologist]].<ref>{{cite web|title=About Solomon Asch|url=http://www.brynmawr.edu/aschcenter/about/solomon.htm|website=www.brynmawr.edu|accessdate=21 February 2018|archive-date=6 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806035010/http://www.brynmawr.edu/aschcenter/about/solomon.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* September 30 – [[Stanley Hooker]] (died [[1984 in science|1984]]), English [[aeronautical engineer]].
* October 2 – [[Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd|Alexander R. Todd]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), Scottish biochemist and [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] laureate.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd {{!}} British biochemist |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Robertus-Todd-Baron-Todd |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=10 September 2021 }}</ref>
* November 13 – [[Wang Yinglai]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), Chinese [[biochemist]].
* December 21 – [[Horace Hodes]] (died [[1989 in science|1989]]), American medical researcher.
* December 25 – [[Rufus P. Turner]] (died [[1982 in science|1982]]), [[African American]] [[electronic engineer]].

==Deaths==
* January 20
** [[Agnes Mary Clerke]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), Irish astronomer and author.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Catharine M C|last1=Haines|first2=Helen M|last2=Stevens|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|location=Santa Barbara|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2001|page=66|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1}}</ref>
** [[Dmitri Mendeleev]] (born [[1834 in science|1834]]), Russian [[chemist]].
* February 5 (O.S. January 22) – [[Nikolai Menshutkin]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), Russian chemist.
* May 19 – Sir [[Benjamin Baker (engineer)|Benjamin Baker]] (born [[1840 in science|1840]]), English [[civil engineer]].
* June 7 – [[Edward Routh]] (born [[1831 in science|1831]]), English [[mathematician]].
* June 18 – [[Alexander Stewart Herschel]] (born [[1836 in science|1836]]), British [[astronomer]].
* July 14 – Sir [[William Henry Perkin]] (born [[1838 in science|1838]]), English chemist.
* November 22 – [[Asaph Hall]] (born [[1829 in science|1829]]), American astronomer.
* December 17 – [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin]] (born [[1824 in science|1824]]), British [[physicist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1907 In Science}}
[[Category:1907 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1900s in science]]