Editing 1915 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1915|science}}
{{Science year nav|1915}}

The year '''1915''' involved numerous significant events in [[science]] and [[technology]], some of which are listed below.

==Astronomy==
* January – British physicist Sir [[Joseph Larmor]] publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".<ref>''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' '''75''':205–10.</ref>
* March 19 – [[Pluto]] is photographed for the first time but is not classified as a [[planet]].
* [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] new theory of [[general relativity]] is used to explain [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]]'s strange motions that baffled [[Urbain Le Verrier]].
* [[Robert T. A. Innes|Robert Innes]] discovers [[Proxima Centauri]], the closest star to Earth after the Sun.

==Chemistry==
* [[Alice Ball]] discovers how to make [[Chaulmoogra]] tree oil water-soluble, which makes it usable for patients with [[leprosy]] in Hawai'i.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wong|first1=Kathleen M.|title=The Trailblazing Black Woman Chemist Who Discovered a Treatment for Leprosy|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-trailblazing-black-woman-chemist-who-discovered-a-treatment-for-leprosy-180979772/|journal=Smithsonian Magazine|access-date=2023-12-27|archive-date=2023-12-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231211200621/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-trailblazing-black-woman-chemist-who-discovered-a-treatment-for-leprosy-180979772/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Lyle Williams]] produces the [[mascara]] [[Maybelline]].

==Earth sciences==
* May 22 – [[Lassen Peak]], one of the [[Cascade Volcanoes]] in [[Northern California]], erupts, sending an ash plume 30,000 feet in the air and devastating the nearby area with [[pyroclastic flow]]s and [[lahar]]s. It is the only volcano to erupt in the [[contiguous United States]] between 1900 and 1980.
* [[Alfred Wegener]] publishes his [[theory]] of [[Pangea]], which he calls ''Urkontinent''.<ref>''Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane'' ("The Origin of Continents and Oceans").</ref>

== Paleontology ==
* The new [[theropod]] dinosaur genus and species ''[[Spinosaurus]] aegyptiacus'' is assigned by German paleontologist [[Ernst Stromer]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stromer |first=E. |year=1915 |title=Ergebnisse der Forschungsreisen Prof. E. Stromers in den Wüsten Ägyptens. II. Wirbeltier-Reste der Baharije-Stufe (unterstes Cenoman). 3. Das Original des Theropoden ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus'' nov. gen., nov. spec. |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40375081 |journal=Abhandlungen der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-physikalische Klasse |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=1–32}}</ref>

==Life sciences==
* January – [[Mildred Hoge Richards|Mildred Hoge]] publishes her discovery of the gene (much later identified as [[PAX6]]) responsible for development of the eye.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hoge|first=Mildred|title=Another Gene in the Fourth Chromosome of ''Drosophila''|journal=[[The American Naturalist]]|date=January 1915|volume=49|issue=577|pages=47–49|doi=10.1086/279455|jstor=2456099|s2cid=83865793|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2400631|accessdate=2021-07-23}}</ref>
* A global [[pandemic]] of [[encephalitis lethargica]] begins.<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|3356}}</ref><ref>von Economo, K. (1917-05-10) "Encepahlitis lethargica". ''Wiener klinische Wochenschrift'' '''30''': pp. 581–585; (1918) ''Die Encephalitis lethargica''. Leipzig; Vienna: Franz Deuticke.</ref><ref>{{DorlandsDict|nine/000952335|Encephalitis lethargica}}</ref>
* [[Trench nephritis]] is first reported as affecting soldiers of the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]] in Flanders in the ''[[British Medical Journal]]''; the name is coined by [[Nathan Raw]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Atenstaedt|first=R. L.|date=August 2006|title=The medical response to trench nephritis in World War One|journal=Kidney International|volume=70|issue=4|pages=635–640|doi=10.1038/sj.ki.5001618|issn=0085-2538|pmid=16820794|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Walter Bradford Cannon]] coins the term ''[[Fight-or-flight response|fight or flight]]'' to describe an animal's response to threats.<ref>{{cite book|first=Walter Bradford|last=Cannon|title=Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: an Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement|url=https://archive.org/details/bodilychangesin02canngoog|year=1915|publisher=Appleton}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Hunt Morgan]], demonstrates non-inherited [[Mutation|genetic mutation]] (in ''[[Drosophila melanogaster]]''), undermining the conceptual basis of [[eugenics]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Blom|first=Philipp|authorlink=Philipp Blom|title=The Vertigo Years: Change and Culture in the West, 1900-1914|year=2008|publisher=McClelland & Stewart|location=Toronto|isbn=978-0-7710-1630-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/336 336–337]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/336}}</ref>
* [[Reginald Punnett]]'s ''Mimicry in Butterflies'' is published in Cambridge (U.K.)
* [[Clara H. Hasse]] publishes a paper identifying the cause of [[citrus canker]] which leads to the development of methods for controlling the disease, saving the [[citrus]] crops in the [[southern United States]] from being wiped out.<ref>In ''Journal of Agricultural Research''. {{cite book|last=Harding|first=Thomas Swann|year=1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jAD9Btw5hd4C&dq=Clara+H.+Hasse&pg=PA324|title=Two Blades of Grass: A History of Scientific Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture|page=324|publisher=Ayer Publishing|isbn=978-0-405-12547-8}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* [[Emmy Noether]] proves [[Noether's theorem|her theorem]] that any [[derivative|differentiable]] [[Symmetry in physics|symmetry]] of the [[action (physics)|action]] of a physical system has a corresponding [[Conservation law (physics)|conservation law]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Noether|first=E.|year=1918|title=Invariante Variationsprobleme|journal=Nachrichten von der Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse|volume=1918|pages=235–257}} Reprinted in: {{cite journal|author1=Noether, Emmy|author2=Tavel|year=1971|title=Invariant Variation Problems|journal=Transport Theory and Statistical Physics|volume=1|issue=3|pages=186–207|arxiv=physics/0503066|doi=10.1080/00411457108231446|bibcode = 1971TTSP....1..186N|s2cid=119019843}}</ref>
* [[Wacław Sierpiński]] describes the [[Sierpinski triangle]].

==Physics==
* August – [[Ada Hitchins]]' experimental results indicating that [[radium]] is formed by the decay of [[uranium]] are published.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Soddy|first1=Frederick|authorlink1=Frederick Soddy|last2=Hitchins|first2=A. F. R.|title=XVII. The relation between uranium and radium. Part VI. The life-period of ionium|journal=[[Philosophical Magazine]]|series=6|date=August 1915|volume=30|issue=176|pages=209–219|doi=10.1080/14786440808635387|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430828}}</ref>
* November 25 – [[Albert Einstein]] presents to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] the [[Einstein field equations]] of [[general relativity]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Einstein|first=Albert|date=1915-11-25|title=Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation|journal=Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin|pages=844–847|url=http://nausikaa2.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.x.cgi?dir=6E3MAXK4&step=thumb|accessdate=2006-09-12|archive-date=2016-10-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027044950/http://nausikaa2.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/toc/toc.x.cgi?dir=6E3MAXK4|url-status=dead}}</ref> He abandons his [[hole argument]] for general relativity.<ref>{{cite book|last=van Dongen|first=Jeroen|year=2010|title=Einstein's Unification|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521883467|page=23}}</ref>
* [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] develops a modified [[Bohr model|Bohr atomic model]] with elliptic orbits to explain relativistic [[fine structure]].

==Psychology==
* [[Danes|Danish]] [[psychologist]] [[Edgar Rubin]] publishes ''Synsoplevede Figurer'' ("Visual Figures") introducing the [[optical illusion]] which becomes known as the [[Rubin vase]].

==Technology==
* January 19 – [[Georges Claude]] [[patent]]s the [[neon]] discharge tube for use in [[advertising]].
* February 4 – John G. A. Kitchen patents the [[Kitchen rudder|reversing rudder]].<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>
* March 3 – The [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]], the predecessor of [[NASA]], is established in the United States.
* July 1 – First use of [[synchronization gear]] in [[aerial warfare]].
* August – [[Brodie helmet]] patented in the United Kingdom.
* September 9 – [[William Foster & Co.]] of [[Lincoln, England]], complete the first prototype [[Tanks in World War I|military tank]] "[[Little Willie]]".
* [[Max Fleischer]] invents the [[rotoscoping]] film [[animation]] process in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS1hCSsmH1E|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/IS1hCSsmH1E|archive-date=2021-11-17|url-status=live|title=The trick that made animation realistic|last=Edwards|first=Phil|date=2019-12-03|website=Vox}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[Wolfgang Gaede]] invents the [[diffusion pump]].<ref>{{cite journal|year=1915|journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]|volume=46|pages=357–392|last=Gaede|first=W.|doi=10.1002/andp.19153510304|title=Die Diffusion der Gase durch Quecksilberdampf bei niederen Drucken und die Diffusionsluftpumpe|issue=3|bibcode=1915AnP...351..357G|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1447291}}</ref>
* [[William Mills (inventor)|William Mills]] patents, develops and manufactures the [[Mills bomb]], a [[hand grenade]], at the Mills Munition Factory in [[Birmingham]], England.<ref>{{US patent|1178092}} U.S. copy of the 1915/1916 Mills grenade patent.</ref>
* [[Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl]] produces a form of [[hovercraft]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – Sir [[William Henry Bragg]] and Sir [[William Lawrence Bragg]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Richard Martin Willstätter]]

==Births==
* January 11 – [[Lucille Farrier Stickel]] (died [[2007 in science|2007]]), American wildlife toxicologist.
* February 26 – [[Wang Daheng]] (died [[2011 in science|2011]]), Chinese optical physicist.
* February 28 – [[Peter Medawar]] (died [[1987 in science|1987]]), Brazilian-born British biologist, co-recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] ([[1960 in science|1960]]) for his work in [[immunology]].
* March 15 – [[Laurent Schwartz]] (died [[2002 in science|2002]]), French [[mathematician]].
* March 16 – [[Kunihiko Kodaira]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), Japanese mathematician.
* May 30 – [[Henry Aaron Hill]] (died [[1979 in science|1979]]), American fluorocarbon chemist and first [[African American]] president of the [[American Chemical Society]].
* June 15
** [[Thomas Huckle Weller]] (died [[2008 in science|2008]]), American [[virologist]] and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ([[1954 in science|1954]]) for his work on [[polio]].
** [[Xu Ruiyun]] (suicide [[1969 in science|1969]]), Chinese mathematician.
* June 19 – [[Katherine Sanford]] (died [[2005 in science|2005]]), American cell biologist.
* June 24 – [[Fred Hoyle]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), English [[astronomer]] and [[science fiction]] writer.
* July 28 – [[Charles Hard Townes]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), American [[physicist]] and co-recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] ([[1964 in science|1964]]) for developing the [[maser]].
* October 1 – [[Jerome Bruner]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), American [[Developmental psychology|developmental]] and [[educational psychologist]].
* October 26 – [[Lu Jiaxi (chemist)|Lu Jiaxi]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), Chinese physical chemist.
* November 18 – [[Tang Aoqing]] (died [[2008 in science|2008]]), Chinese quantum chemist.
* November 30 – [[Henry Taube]] (died 2005), Canadian-born recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] ([[1983 in science|1983]]).
* December 5 – [[Ren Xinmin]] (died [[2017 in science|2017]]), Chinese rocket scientist.
* December 22 – [[A. E. Wilder-Smith]] (died [[1995 in science|1995]]), English-born [[organic chemist]].

==Deaths==
* February 17 – [[Stanislaus von Prowazek]] (born [[1875 in science|1875]]), Bohemian-born parasitologist.
* April 19 – Sir [[Thomas Clouston (psychiatrist)|Thomas Clouston]] (born [[1840 in science|1840]]), [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[psychiatrist]].
* March 21 – [[Ambrosius Hubrecht]] (born [[1853 in science|1853]]), [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[zoology|zoologist]].
* March 24 – [[Margaret Lindsay Huggins]] (born [[1848 in science|1848]]), [[Ireland|Irish]]-born [[astronomer]].
* May 2 – [[Clara Immerwahr]] (born [[1870 in science|1870]]), German [[chemist]] (suicide).
* May 7 – [[Marie Depage]] (born [[1872 in science|1872]]), [[Belgians|Belgian]] nurse (died in [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania'']]).
* May 13 – [[Morgan Crofton]] (born [[1826 in science|1826]]), Irish-born [[mathematician]].
* July 22 – Sir [[Sandford Fleming]] (born [[1827 in science|1827]]), Canadian engineer and surveyor known as the "father of [[time zone]]s".
* August 10 – [[Henry Moseley]] (born [[1887 in science|1887]]), English [[physicist]] (killed in action on the [[Gallipoli Campaign]]).
* September 26 – [[Tsuruko Haraguchi]] (born [[1886 in science|1886]]), Japanese psychologist ([[tuberculosis]]).
* October 11 – [[Jean Henri Fabre]] (born [[1823 in science|1823]]), French [[entomologist]].
* October 15 – [[Theodor Boveri]] (born [[1862 in science|1862]]), German [[geneticist]].
* December 19 – [[Alois Alzheimer]] (born [[1864 in science|1864]]), German [[neuroscientist]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1915 In Science}}
[[Category:1915 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1910s in science]]