Editing 1909 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1909|science}}
{{Science year nav|1909}}

The year '''1909 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* August 20 – Dwarf planet [[Pluto]] is photographed for the first time, at the [[Yerkes Observatory]] in [[Williams Bay, Wisconsin]], U.S., 21 years before being identified.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Buchwald|first1=Greg|last2=Dimario|first2=Michael|last3=Wild|first3=Walter|year=2000|title=Pluto is Discovered Back in Time|journal=Amateur–Professional Partnerships in Astronomy|location=San Francisco|volume=220|page=335|isbn=978-1-58381-052-1|bibcode=2000ASPC..220..355B}}</ref>
* [[Comet Halley]] first becomes visible on a photographic plate.

==Biology==
* Danish plant physiologist [[Wilhelm Johannsen]] introduces the term "[[Gene]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johannsen |first=W. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/94247 |title=Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre |publisher=G. Fischer |year=1909 |location=Jena |language=German |trans-title=Elements of the exact theory of heredity |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.94247}}</ref>
* [[Karl Landsteiner]], [[Constantin Levaditi]] and [[Erwin Popper]] first isolate the [[poliovirus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Landsteiner|first1=Karl|last2=Popper|first2=Erwin|year=1909|title=Übertragung der Poliomyelitis acuta auf Affen|journal=Zeitschrift für Immunitätsforschung|volume=2|pages=377–390}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Paul|first=J. R.|title=A History of Poliomyelitis|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|year=1971|isbn=978-0-300-01324-5|series=Yale studies in the history of science and medicine}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Hunt Morgan]] produces heritable mutant ''[[Drosophila melanogaster]]''.

==Chemistry==
* February 5 – [[Leo Baekeland]] announces the creation of the early plastic [[Bakelite]], a hard [[thermosetting plastic|thermosetting]] [[phenol formaldehyde resin]], to the [[American Chemical Society]].<ref>{{cite news|title=New Chemical Substance|journal=[[The New York Times]]|date=1909-02-06|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/02/06/101025892.pdf}}</ref>
* Summer – [[Fritz Haber]] and [[Carl Bosch]] first demonstrate the [[Haber process]], the [[catalytic]] formation of [[ammonia]] from [[hydrogen]] and atmospheric [[nitrogen]] under conditions of high temperature and pressure.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=DE&NR=235421&KC=&FT=E|title=Original Patent for Synthesis of Ammonia|publisher=European Patent Office|accessdate=12 April 2011<!--DASHBot-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Chris|last=Bowlby|title=Fritz Haber: Jewish chemist whose work led to Zyklon B|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13015210|publisher=BBC News|date=2011-04-12|accessdate=2011-04-12|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110412034923/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13015210|archivedate=12 April 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The concept of [[pH|p[H]]] as a measure of the [[acid]]ity or [[Base (chemistry)|basicity]] of an [[aqueous solution]] is introduced by [[Danes|Danish]] [[chemist]] [[Søren Peder Lauritz Sørensen]] at the [[Carlsberg Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Sorensen|first=S. P. L.|title=Enzymstudien. II, Über die Messung und die Bedeutung der Wasserstoffionenkonzentration bei enzymatischen Prozessen|journal=Biochemische Zeitschrift|year=1909|volume=21|pages=131–304}}</ref>
* A team under German chemist [[Fritz Hofmann (chemist)|Fritz Hofmann]]  first synthesizes [[synthetic rubber]] (''Methylkautschuk'').

==Geology==
* January 16 – [[Ernest Shackleton]]'s expedition locates the [[South Magnetic Pole]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://deeptow.whoi.edu/southpole.html|title=The Magnetic South Pole|publisher=[[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]], Magnetics Group, Ocean Bottom Magnetology Laboratory|accessdate=2011-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421112934/http://deeptow.whoi.edu/southpole.html|archive-date=2016-04-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* April 6 – [[Robert Peary]], [[Matthew Henson]], and four [[Eskimo]] explorers come within a few miles of the [[North Pole]].
* October 8 – An earthquake in the [[Zagreb]] area leads [[Andrija Mohorovičić]] to identify the [[Mohorovičić discontinuity]].

==Mathematics==
* [[L. E. J. Brouwer]] makes a proof of the [[Brouwer fixed-point theorem]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=97}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* August 30 – Discovery of the [[Burgess Shale]] [[Cambrian]] [[fossil]] site in the [[Canadian Rockies]] by [[paleontologist]] [[Charles Doolittle Walcott|Charles Walcott]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]].
* Excavation of the [[dinosaur]] [[bone bed]]s at what will become [[Dinosaur National Monument]] in the [[Uinta Mountains]] of the United States by paleontologist [[Earl Douglass]] working for the [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History]].<ref>{{cite book|first=G. E.|last=Douglass|title=Speak to the Earth and It Will Teach You: The Life and Times of Earl Douglass, 1862–1931|year=2009|location=Charleston, South Carolina|publisher=BookSurge}}</ref>

==Physics==
* [[Paul Ehrenfest]] presents the [[Ehrenfest paradox]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ehrenfest|first=Paul|year=1909|title=Gleichförmige Rotation starrer Körper und Relativitätstheorie|trans-title=[[s:Translation:Uniform Rotation of Rigid Bodies and the Theory of Relativity|Uniform Rotation of Rigid Bodies and the Theory of Relativity]]|journal=[[Physikalische Zeitschrift]]|volume=10|page=918|title-link=s:de:Gleichförmige Rotation starrer Körper und Relativitätstheorie}}</ref>
* [[Albert Einstein]] together with [[Marcel Grossmann]] starts to develop a theory which would bind [[metric tensor]] ''g''<sub>ik</sub>, which defines a [[space]] [[geometry]], with a source of gravity, that is with [[mass]].
* [[Hans Geiger]] and [[Ernest Marsden]] discover large angle deflections of alpha particles by thin metal foils.
* [[Ernest Rutherford]] and [[Thomas Royds]] demonstrate that [[alpha particles]] are doubly [[ionization|ionized]] helium atoms.

==Physiology and medicine==
* July – [[Ivy Evelyn Woodward]] is admitted as the first woman Member of the [[Royal College of Physicians]] in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite book|title=A history of the Royal College of Physicians of London|volume=3|last=Cooke|first=A. M.|publisher=Clarendon Press for the Royal College of Physicians|year=1972|page=976}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Professions and Patriarchy|last=Witz|first=Anne|year=2016|place=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781138135796|oclc=938993033}}</ref>
* September – [[Sigmund Freud]] delivers his only lectures in the United States, on [[psychoanalysis]], at [[Clark University]], Worcester, Massachusetts, giving public recognition to the subject in the anglophone world.
* Austro-Hungarian neurologist and psychiatrist [[Rezső Bálint (physician)|Rezső Bálint]] first describes [[Bálint's syndrome]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1159/000210464|title=Seelenlähmung des 'Schauens', optische Ataxie, räumliche Störung der Aufmerksamkeit|trans-title=Soul imbalance of 'seeing', optical ataxia, spatial disturbance of attention|language=German|journal=European Neurology|volume=25|pages=51–66|year=1909|last=Bálint|first=Rudolph|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448605|access-date=2025-02-09|archive-date=2019-08-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824130814/https://zenodo.org/record/1448605|url-status=live}}</ref>
* German neurologist [[Korbinian Brodmann]] defines the [[cytoarchitecture]] of the [[Brodmann area]] of the [[cerebral cortex]].<ref>{{citation|first=K.|last=Brodmann|title=Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Großhirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues.|year=1909}}</ref>
* Brazilian physician and [[Infectology|infectologist]] [[Carlos Chagas]] first describes [[Chagas disease]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chagas|first=C.|title=Neue Trypanosomen|journal=Vorläufige Mitteilung Archiv für Schiffs-und Tropenhygiene|year=1909|volume=13|pages=120–2}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Redhead, S. A. |author2=Cushion, M. T. |author3=Frenkel, J. K. |author4=Stringer, J. R. |title=''Pneumocystis'' and ''Trypanosoma cruzi'': nomenclature and typifications|journal=Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology|year=2006|pages=2–11|volume=53|issue=1|pmid=16441572|doi=10.1111/j.1550-7408.2005.00072.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Chagas|first=C.|title=Nova tripanozomiase humana: Estudos sobre a morfolojia e o ciclo evolutivo do Schizotrypanum cruzi n. gen., n. sp., ajente etiolojico de nova entidade morbida do homem [New human trypanosomiasis: Studies about the morphology and life-cycle of ''Schizotripanum cruzi'', etiological agent of a new morbid entity of man]|journal=Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz|year=1909|volume=1|issue=2|pages=159–218|issn=0074-0276|doi=10.1590/S0074-02761909000200008|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=História, Ciências, Saúde – Manguinhos|date=July 2009|volume=16|issue=Suppl 1|pages=13–34|title=The discovery of Trypanosoma cruzi and Chagas disease (1908–1909): tropical medicine in Brazil|last1=Kropf|first1=S. P.|last2=Sá|first2=Magali Romero|pmid=20027916|doi=10.1590/s0104-59702009000500002|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* French [[otolaryngologist]] [[Étienne Lombard]] discovers the [[Lombard effect]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lombard|first=É.|title=Le signe de l'élévation de la voix|journal=Annales des Maladies de l'Oreille et du Larynx|volume=XXXVII|issue=2|pages=101–9|year=1911}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Lane, H.|author2=Tranel, B.|title=The Lombard sign and the role of hearing in speech|journal=Journal of Speech and Hearing Research|volume=14|issue=4|pages=677–709|year=1971|doi=10.1044/jshr.1404.677}}</ref>
* In [[psychology]], [[Edward B. Titchener]] makes the first published coinage of the term ''[[Empathy]]'' as a translation of the German {{lang|de|Einfühlungsvermögen}}.<ref>''Lectures on the Experimental Psychology of the Thought-Processes''. New York: Macmillan, 1909. {{cite web |title=empathy, ''n''. |work=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] online version |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/61284 |url-access=subscription |accessdate=2012-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220304034318/https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/61284 |archive-date=2022-03-04 |url-status=live |date=December 2011 }} {{OEDsub}}</ref>

==Technology==
* March 18 – Einar Dessau uses a [[shortwave radio]] transmitter in Denmark.<ref>{{cite web|title=First Broadcast by Ham Radio Operator|url=https://infostory.com/2013/03/18/first-broadcast-by-ham-radio-operator-2/|work=The Story of Information|date=2013-03-18|accessdate=2019-10-17}}</ref>
* July 7 – [[General Electric]] applies to patent an electric [[toaster]] invented by Frank E. Shailor in the United States<ref>F. E. Shailor (1910-02-22) "Electric heater" {{US Patent|950058}}.</ref> and produces the GE model D-12, the first commercially successful model.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.toaster.org/museum.html|work=The Cyber Toaster Museum|last=Norcross|first=Eric|title=1900–1920|year=2006|publisher=The Toaster Museum Foundation|access-date=2022-11-20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080815211550/http://www.toaster.org/museum.html|archive-date=2008-08-15|via=Wayback Machine}}</ref>
* July 23 – [[White Star Line]]r [[RMS Republic (1903)|RMS ''Republic'']] (15,400 tons), sinking following a collision off [[Nantucket]], becomes the first ship in history to issue a [[CQD]] distress signal, using [[Marconi Company|Marconi]] [[wireless telegraphy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rescue/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html|work=The American Experience|title=Rescue at Sea|publisher=[[PBS]]|accessdate=2012-03-22|archive-date=2012-11-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109192118/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rescue/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=William H.|last=Flayhart|title=Disaster at Sea|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2005|pages=206–210}}</ref>
* July 25 – [[Louis Bleriot]] is the first man to fly across the [[English Channel]] in a heavier-than-air craft.
* [[Kinemacolor]], the first commercial "natural color" system for [[film|movies]] is invented.
* [[Johann Stumpf (engineer)|Johann Stumpf]] popularises the [[uniflow steam engine]].<ref>{{cite book|first=H. W.|last=Dickinson|title=A Short History of the Steam Engine|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1938}}</ref>

==Events==
* June 26 – The [[Science Museum, London]] is established as an institution in its own right.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about-us |title=About us| publisher = [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]] | accessdate=2020-05-06 }}</ref>
* Commencement of fieldwork for the multidisciplinary [[Clare Island Survey]] (Ireland), under the direction of [[Robert Lloyd Praeger]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Guglielmo Marconi]], [[Karl Ferdinand Braun]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Wilhelm Ostwald]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Emil Theodor Kocher]]

==Births==
* January 5 – [[Stephen Cole Kleene]] (died [[1994 in science|1994]]), American [[mathematician]].
* February 9 – [[Giulio Racah]] (died [[1965 in science|1965]]), Italian–Israeli mathematician and physicist.
* February 18 – [[Warren Elliot Henry]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), American [[physicist]].
* March 22 – [[Nathan Rosen]] (died [[1995 in science|1995]]), Jewish American physicist.
* April 13 – [[Stanislaw Ulam]] (died [[1984 in science|1984]]), Polish American mathematician.
* April 22 – [[Rita Levi-Montalcini]] (died [[2012 in science|2012]]), [[Italian Jews|Italian Jewish]] [[neurologist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* May 7 – [[Edwin H. Land]] (died [[1991 in science|1991]]), American inventor and founder of [[Polaroid Corporation|Polaroid]].
* September 14 – [[Peter Scott]] (died [[1989 in science|1989]]), English [[Conservation movement|conservationist]].
* August 1 – [[Sibyl M. Rock]] (died [[1981 in science|1981]]), American mathematician.
* November 24 – [[Gerhard Gentzen]] (died [[1945 in science|1945]]), German-born mathematician.
* December 11 – [[Toshiko Yuasa]] (died [[1980 in science|1980]]), Japanese [[nuclear physicist]].
* December 14 – [[Edward Lawrie Tatum]] (died [[1975 in science|1975]]), American [[geneticist]], recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

==Deaths==
* January 12 – [[Hermann Minkowski]] (born [[1864 in science|1864]]), German [[mathematician]].
* February 26 – [[Hermann Ebbinghaus]] (born [[1850 in science|1850]]), German [[psychologist]].
* July 11 – [[Simon Newcomb]] (born [[1835 in science|1835]]), Canadian American [[astronomer]].
* August 14 – [[William Stanley (inventor)|William Stanley]] (born [[1829 in science|1829]]), English [[Invention|inventor]].
* August 27 – [[Emil Christian Hansen]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), Danish [[Fermentation (biochemistry)|fermentation]] [[physiologist]].
* October 19 – [[Cesare Lombroso]] (born 1835), Italian [[forensic psychiatrist]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1909 In Science}}
[[Category:1909 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1900s in science]]