Editing 1916 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1916|science}}
{{Science year nav|1916}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
The year '''1916''' involved a number of significant events in [[science]] and [[technology]], some of which are listed below.

==Astronomy==
* [[Barnard's Star]] is discovered by [[Edward Emerson Barnard]].
* [[Harlow Shapley]] finds that the spectrum of [[S Sagittae]] and other [[Cepheid variable]]s varies with brightness, recording it as [[spectral type]] F0 leading to maximum, F4 at maximum, and G3 just before minimum brightness.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Shapley|first=Harlow|date=1916|title=The variations in spectral type of twenty Cepheid variables|journal=[[The Astrophysical Journal]]|volume=44|pages=273–91|doi=10.1086/142295|bibcode=1916ApJ....44..273S|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Chemistry==
* [[Gilbert N. Lewis]] and [[Irving Langmuir]] formulate an electron shell model of [[chemical bond]]ing.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1916|url=http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/papers/corr216.3-lewispub-19160400.html|title=The Atom and the Molecule|first=Gilbert N.|last=Lewis|journal=[[Journal of the American Chemical Society]]|volume=38|pages=762–85|doi=10.1021/ja02261a002| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720024330/http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/papers/corr216.3-lewispub-19160400.html| archivedate=20 July 2011 | url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* The [[Born–Haber cycle]], an approach to analyze reaction energies, is developed by German scientists [[Max Born]] and [[Fritz Haber]].
* [[Sydney Chapman (astronomer)|Sydney Chapman]] and [[David Enskog]] systematically develop a [[kinetic theory of gases]].
* [[Jan Czochralski]] invents a method for growing single crystals of metals.

==Mathematics==
* [[Ludwig Bieberbach]] presents the [[Bieberbach conjecture]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=L.|last=Bieberbach|title=Über die Koeffizienten derjenigen Potenzreihen, welche eine schlichte Abbildung des Einheitskreises vermitteln|journal=Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Phys-Math. Kl.|year=1916|pages=940–955}}</ref>
* [[Wacław Sierpiński]] gives the first example of an [[normal number|absolutely normal number]] and describes the [[Sierpinski carpet]].

==Medicine==
* 1 January – The British [[Royal Army Medical Corps]] carries out the first successful [[blood transfusion]] using blood that had been stored and cooled.
* 16 October – [[Margaret Sanger]] opens a [[family planning]] and [[birth control]] clinic in [[Brownsville, Brooklyn]], the first of its kind in the United States.<ref>{{cite book|title=The selected papers of Margaret Sanger, Volume '''1''': The Woman Rebel, 1900–1928|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2003|page=199}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Baker|first=Jean H.|year=2011|title=Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion|publisher=Macmillan|page=115}}</ref> Nine days later, she is arrested for breaking a [[New York (state)|New York]] state law prohibiting distribution of [[contraceptive]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Engelman|first=Peter C.|year=2011|title=A History of the Birth Control Movement in America|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36509-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofbirthco0000enge/page/100 101]}}{{void|comment|Fabrickator|intentionally specifying page as 100, initially book opens in 2-page mode, user may switch to 1-page mode to view more easily but must specify 2-page mode to be able to switch to 2-page mode and have visibility to page 101 without being logged in}}</ref> This same year, she publishes ''What Every Girl Should Know'', providing information about such topics as [[menstruation]] and sexuality in adolescents.
* [[Georges Guillain]], [[Jean Alexandre Barré]] and [[André Strohl]] diagnose two soldiers with [[Guillain–Barré syndrome]] of the [[peripheral nervous system]] and describe the key diagnostic abnormality of increased [[spinal fluid]] protein production, but normal cell count.<ref>{{WhoNamedIt2|synd|1766|Guillain–Barré–Strohl syndrome}} and {{WhoNamedIt|synd|1508|Miller Fisher's syndrome}}</ref>
* [[Eugen Bleuler]] publishes his ''Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie'', including a definition of complexes arising from diffuse [[brain damage]], known as "Bleuler's psycho syndrome".<ref>{{cite web|title=Eugen Bleuler|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1294.html|work=[[Who Named It?|Whonamedit?]]|accessdate=2011-11-01}}</ref>
* [[Medication]] [[Suramin]] against [[African trypanosomiasis|African sleeping sickness]] and [[river blindness]] is first made by German company [[Bayer AG]].

==Physics==
* [[Albert Einstein]] publishes "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060829045130/http://www.alberteinstein.info/gallery/gtext3.html Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie]" on [[general relativity]] in ''[[Annalen der Physik]]'' '''49''' and shows that the field equations of general relativity admit wavelike solutions. This will be demonstrated in [[2016 in science|2016]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35524440|title=Einstein's gravitational waves 'seen' from black holes|first=Pallab|last=Ghosh|authorlink=Pallab Ghosh|publisher=[[BBC News]]|date=2016-02-11|accessdate=2016-02-11}}</ref>
* [[Karl Schwarzschild]] solves the [[Einstein field equations#Vacuum field equations|Einstein vacuum field equations]] for [[electric charge|uncharged]] spherically symmetric non-rotating systems and calculates [[Schwarzschild radius]].

==Psychology==
* [[Lewis M. Terman]] of [[Stanford University]] develops the first of the [[Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales]] for [[intelligence testing]].

==Technology==
* February – ''[[Stahlhelm]]'' steel helmet first issued to German soldiers.
* 18 April – Capt. [[Peter Norman Nissen|Peter Nissen]] completes the prototype [[Nissen hut]].<ref>{{cite book|last=McCosh|first=Fred|year=1997|title=Nissen of the Huts: a biography of Lt Col. Peter Nissen, DSO|location=Bourne End|publisher=BD Publishing|isbn=0-9525799-1-X}}</ref>
* 11 September – The almost-completed [[Quebec Bridge]] collapses for the second time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=William D.|title=The Bridge at Québec|year=2001|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-33761-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bridgeatquebec0000midd/page/158 158]|url=https://archive.org/details/bridgeatquebec0000midd|url-access=registration|accessdate=2011-08-16}}</ref>

==Events==
* Chemist [[Chika Kuroda]] becomes the first woman in Japan to receive a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree.<ref name=WiS>{{cite book|last=Haines|first=Catharine M. C.|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain/page/164 164]}}</ref>

==Births==
* 9 January – [[Peter Twinn]], mathematician and World War II code-breaker (died 2004)<ref>[[Dan van der Vat]], "Obituary: Peter Twinn", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 20 November 2004</ref>
* 10 January – [[Sune K. Bergström]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), [[Sweden|Swedish]] [[biochemist]], winner of the 1982 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* 25 January – [[John R. F. Jeffreys]] (died [[1944 in science|1944]]), British [[mathematician]] and [[cryptanalyst]].
* 4 March – [[Hans Eysenck]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), German-born [[psychologist]].
* 26 March – [[Christian B. Anfinsen]] (died [[1995 in science|1995]]), American biochemist, winner of the 1972 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* 14 April – [[Lawrence Hogben]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), New Zealand [[meteorologist]].
* 22 April – [[Ruth A. M. Schmidt]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), American [[geologist]].
* 30 April – [[Claude Shannon]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), American mathematician, "father of [[information theory]]".
* 6 May – [[Robert H. Dicke]] (died [[1997 in science|1997]]), American [[physicist]].
* 4 June – [[Robert F. Furchgott]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), American biochemist, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 8 June – [[Francis Crick]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), English-born molecular biologist, co-discoverer of the [[nucleic acid double helix]] structure in 1953, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 11 June – [[Alexander Prokhorov]] (died [[2002 in science|2002]]), Australian-born [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] Russian physicist.
* 15 June – [[Herbert A. Simon]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), American [[polymath]], winner of the 1978 [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]].
* 1 July – [[Iosif Shklovsky]] (died [[1985 in science|1985]]), [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] [[Astrophysics|astrophysicist]].
* 11 July – [[Kitty Joyner]] (died [[1993 in science|1993]]), American electrical engineer.
* 25 August – [[Frederick Chapman Robbins]] (died [[2003 in science|2003]]), American pediatrician and virologist, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 30 September – [[Richard K. Guy]] (died [[2020 in science|2020]]), English mathematician.
* 3 October – [[Frank Pantridge]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), [[Northern Ireland]] [[cardiologist]].
* 4 October – [[Vitaly Ginzburg]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), Soviet Russian [[Theoretical physics|theoretical physicist]], astrophysicist, one of the fathers of the Soviet [[hydrogen bomb]], winner of the 2003 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]], member of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Soviet and Russian Academies of Sciences]].
* 19 October – [[Jean Dausset]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), French [[immunologist]], winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 16 November – [[Christopher Strachey]] (died [[1975 in science|1975]]), English computer scientist.
* 9 December – [[Esther Wilkins]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), pioneer of [[dental hygiene]].
* 15 December – [[Maurice Wilkins]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), New Zealand-born English molecular biologist, co-discoverer of the nucleic acid double helix structure in 1953 using [[X-ray]] diffraction, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 27 December – [[John Duckworth (physicist)|John Duckworth]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), British physicist.

==Deaths==
* 12 February – [[Richard Dedekind]] (born [[1831 in science|1831]]), German [[mathematician]].
* 19 February – [[Ernst Mach]] (born [[1838 in science|1838]]), Austrian-born [[physicist]].
* 11 May
** [[Karl Schwarzschild]] (born [[1873 in science|1873]]), German [[astronomer]] and physicist.
** [[Nadezhda Ziber-Shumova]] (born [[1856 in science|1856]]), Russian biochemist.
* 15 July – [[Élie Metchnikoff]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), Russian [[zoologist]] and [[immunologist]], winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* 23 July – Sir [[William Ramsay]] (born [[1852 in science|1852]]), Scottish-born [[chemist]], winner of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
* September – [[Anton Köllisch]] (born [[1888 in science|1888]]), German chemist noted for synthesising [[MDMA]]
* 14 September – [[Pierre Duhem]] (born [[1861 in science|1861]]), French [[Philosophy of science|philosopher of science]].
* 29 September – [[Albert John Cook]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), American entomologist and zoologist.
* 10 November – [[Walter Sutton]] (born [[1877 in science|1877]]), American [[geneticist]] and [[surgeon]].
* 12 November – [[Percival Lowell]] (born [[1855 in science|1855]]), American [[astronomer]].
* 24 November – [[Hiram Maxim]] (born [[1840 in science|1840]]), American inventor of the [[machine gun]].
* 31 December – [[Alice Ball]] (born [[1892 in science|1892]]), African-American chemist.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1916 In Science}}
[[Category:1916 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1910s in science]]