Editing 1918 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1918|science}}
{{Science year nav|1918}}

The following events in [[science]] and [[technology]] occurred in the year [[1918]].

==Astronomy==
* June 8 – [[Nova]] Aquila, the brightest observed since [[1604 in science|1604]], is discovered.
* [[Kiyotsugu Hirayama]] identifies several groups of [[main belt]] [[asteroids]], now known as [[Hirayama families]].
* [[Harlow Shapley]] demonstrates that [[globular cluster]]s are arranged in a spheroid or halo whose center is not the [[Earth (planet)|Earth]], but the center of the [[galaxy]].
* [[Heber Curtis]] discovers a [[relativistic jet]] of matter emerging from [[Elliptical galaxy M87]].

==Biology==
* February 21 – The last known [[Carolina parakeet]] (the only [[parrot]] species native to the [[eastern United States]]) dies in [[Cincinnati Zoo]].
* Around 1000 [[pilot whale]]s [[Cetacean stranding|strand]] in the [[Chatham Islands]].
* [[Ronald Fisher|R. A. Fisher]] puts forward a [[genetics|genetic]] model that shows that continuous variation could be the result of [[Mendelian inheritance]] in his paper "[[The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance]]".
* [[Jean Henri Fabre|J. Henri Fabre]]'s ''The Sacred Beetle, and others'' published in English.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fabre |first=Jean-Henri |url=http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/8946 |title=The Sacred Beetle, and others |date=1918 |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company |location=New York |translator-last=Teixeira de Mattos |translator-first=Alexander |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.8946}}</ref>
* [[Jacques Loeb]]'s ''Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct'' published in the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Loeb |first=Jacques |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/18452 |title=Forced movements, tropisms, and animal conduct |date=1918 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott company |location=Philadelphia and London |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.18452}}</ref>

==Cryptography==
* February 23 – [[Arthur Scherbius]] applies to [[patent]] the [[Enigma machine]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Singh|year=1999|title=The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography|location=London|publisher=Fourth Estate|page=127|isbn=978-1-85702-879-9|title-link=The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography}}</ref>
* [[Edward Hugh Hebern]] patents the [[Hebern rotor machine]].

==History of science==
* [[Technisches Museum Wien]] opens in [[Vienna]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Felix Hausdorff]] introduces the concept of the fractional [[Hausdorff dimension]].<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>
* [[Gaston Julia]] describes the iteration of a [[rational function]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Mémoire sur l'itération des fonctions rationnelles|journal=[[Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées]]|volume=8|pages=47–245}}</ref>

==Physics==
* July 26 – [[Emmy Noether]] introduces what becomes known as [[Noether's theorem]], from which [[conservation law]]s are deduced for symmetries of [[angular momentum]], linear [[momentum]] and [[energy]], at [[Göttingen]], Germany.
* [[Josef Lense]] and [[Hans Thirring]] find the gravitomagnetic precession of [[gyroscope]]s in the equations of [[general relativity]].
* [[Hans Reissner]] and [[Gunnar Nordström]] solve the [[Einstein's field equation|Einstein]] and [[Maxwell's equation|Maxwell field equations]] for charged spherically symmetric non-rotating systems.
* [[Friedrich Kottler]] gets a Schwarzschild solution without Einstein vacuum field equations.

==Physiology and medicine==
* January – [[1918 flu pandemic]]: "Spanish 'flu" ([[influenza]]) first observed in [[Haskell County, Kansas]].<ref name=Barry>{{cite book|author-link=John M. Barry|first=John M.|last=Barry|title=The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History|url=https://archive.org/details/greatinfluenzaep00barr|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2005|orig-year=2004}}</ref>
* March 26 – Dr. [[Marie Stopes]] publishes her influential book ''[[Married Love]]'' in the U.K., following it with ''Wise Parenthood'', a treatise on birth control.
* June–August – "[[1918 flu pandemic|Spanish 'flu]]" becomes [[pandemic]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/conf/CRC/Grippe_CRC.ppt |publisher=[[Institut Pasteur]] |title=La Grippe Espagnole de 1918 |access-date=3 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604144218/http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/conf/CRC/Grippe_CRC.ppt |archive-date=4 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* September 7 – [[John Brian Christopherson|J. B. Christopherson]] publishes his discovery that [[antimony potassium tartrate]] is an effective cure for [[bilharzia]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(01)02807-0|title=The Successful Use of Antimony in Bilharziosis|year=1918|last=Christopherson|first=J. B.|journal=[[The Lancet]]|volume=192|issue=4958|page=325|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1907214}}</ref>
* [[Hartog Jacob Hamburger]] describes the [[chloride shift]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hamburger|first=H. J.|title=Anionenwanderungen in serum und blut unter dem einfluss von CO<sub>2</sub>, Saure und Akali|journal=Biochemische Zeitschrift|year=1918|volume=86|pages=309–324}}</ref>

==Technology==
* April 10 – [[Alexander M. Nicholson]] files a United States patent for the [[radio crystal oscillator]].<ref>Nicholson, Alexander M. ''Generating and transmitting electric currents'' {{US patent|2212845}}, granted August 27, 1940.</ref>
* July – American cinematographer [[Frank D. Williams (cinematographer)|Frank D. Williams]] is granted a patent for the "[[Williams process]]" of travelling [[Matte (filmmaking)|matte]].<ref>{{US patent|1273435}}.</ref>
* [[Edwin Howard Armstrong]] develops the [[superheterodyne receiver]].<ref name=WCBN>{{cite web|title=Radio/Broadcasting Timeline|work=CBN History|publisher=WCBN|url=http://www.wcbn.org/history/wcbntime.html|access-date=2019-10-23|archive-date=2022-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301024429/http://www.wcbn.org/history/wcbntime.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[George Constantinescu]] publishes ''[[Theory of sonics]]: a treatise on transmission of power by vibrations'',<ref>London: The Admiralty.</ref> originating the study of this branch of [[continuum mechanics]].
* [[Theodore von Karman]] and [[Asbóth Oszkár]] build the first co-axial [[helicopter]].
* [[Charles Strite]] invents the [[pop-up toaster]].<ref>{{US patent|1394450}}, granted October 18, 1921.</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Max Planck|Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Fritz Haber]]<ref>{{cite web |title=These Nobel Prize Winners Weren't Always Noble |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151005-nobel-laureates-forget-racist-sexist-science/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808155045/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151005-nobel-laureates-forget-racist-sexist-science/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 8, 2020 |website=National Geographic News |access-date=19 January 2021 |date=6 October 2015}}</ref>
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – not awarded

==Births==
* January 23 – [[Gertrude B. Elion]] (died [[1999 in science|1999]]), American [[pharmacologist]], [[Nobel laureate]].
* January 27 – [[Antonín Mrkos]] (died [[1996 in science|1996]]), Czech [[astronomer]].
* March 13  – [[Marjorie Blamey]] (died [[2019 in science|2019]]), English botanical illustrator.
* March 16 – [[Frederick Reines]] (died [[1998 in science|1998]]), American [[physicist]], Nobel laureate.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wilford |first1=John Noble |title=Frederick Reines Dies at 80; Nobelist Discovered Neutrino |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/28/us/frederick-reines-dies-at-80-nobelist-discovered-neutrino.html |access-date=24 October 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=28 August 1998 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* April 4 – [[Joseph Ashbrook]] (died [[1980 in science|1980]]), American astronomer.
* April 25 – [[Gérard de Vaucouleurs]] (died [[1995 in science|1995]]), French astronomer.
* May 11 – [[Richard Feynman]] (died [[1988 in science|1988]]), American physicist, Nobel laureate.
* May 20 – [[Alexandra Illmer Forsythe]] (died [[1980 in science|1980]]), American computer scientist
* June 6 – [[Edwin G. Krebs]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), American [[biochemist]], Nobel laureate.
* July 15
** [[Bertram Brockhouse]] (died [[2003 in science|2003]]), Canadian physicist.
** [[Brenda Milner]], English-born neuropsychologist.
* July 16 – [[Samuel Victor Perry]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), English biochemist, pioneer in the field of muscle biochemistry.
* August 3 – [[Cheng Kaijia]] (died [[2018 in science|2018]]), Chinese [[nuclear physicist]].
* August 13 – [[Frederick Sanger]] (died [[2013 in science|2013]]), English [[molecular biologist]], double Nobel laureate.
* August 26 – [[Katherine Johnson]] (died [[2020 in science|2020]]), African American mathematician and space physicist.
* August 29 – [[John Herivel]] (died [[2011 in science|2011]]), British [[cryptanalyst]] and science historian.
* September 8 – [[Derek Barton]] (died 1998), English-born [[organic chemist]], Nobel laureate. 
* September 27 – [[Martin Ryle]] (died [[1984 in science|1984]]), English [[radio astronomer]].
* October 4 – [[Adrian Kantrowitz]] (died [[2008 in science|2008]]), American [[cardiac surgeon]].
* November 10 – [[Ernst Otto Fischer]] (died [[2007 in science|2007]]), German [[chemist]], Nobel laureate.
* November 19 – [[Hendrik C. van de Hulst]] (died [[2000 in science|2000]]), Dutch astronomer.
* December 25 – [[Tamara Mikhaylovna Smirnova]] (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), Russian astronomer.
* [[Eleanor C. Pressly]] (died [[2003 in science|2003]]), American mathematician and aeronautical engineer.

==Deaths==
* January 6 – [[Georg Cantor]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), German [[mathematician]].
* January 26 – [[Ewald Hering]] (born [[1834 in science|1834]]), German [[physiologist]].
* January 31 – [[Ivan Puluj]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), Austrian-born Ukrainian [[physicist]].
* April 20 – [[Karl Ferdinand Braun]] (born [[1850 in science|1850]]), German physicist, Nobel laureate.
* May 1 – [[G. K. Gilbert]] (born [[1843 in science|1843]]), American [[geologist]].
* May 31 – [[Alexander Mitscherlich (chemist)|Alexander Mitscherlich]] (born [[1836 in science|1836]]), German [[chemist]].
* June 13 – [[Samuel Jean de Pozzi]] (born [[1846 in science|1846]]), French [[gynaecologist]].
* June 27 – [[George Mary Searle]] (born [[1839 in science|1839]]), American [[astronomer]].
* June 29 – [[Alfred Senier]] (born [[1853 in science|1853]]), Irish [[chemist]].
* September 7 – [[Peter Ludwig Mejdell Sylow]] (born [[1832 in science|1832]]), Norwegian [[mathematician]].
* August 22 – [[Korbinian Brodmann]] (born [[1868 in science|1868]]), German [[neurologist]].
* October 28 – [[Ulisse Dini]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), Italian mathematician.
* November 3 – [[Aleksandr Lyapunov]] (born [[1857 in science|1857]]), Russian mathematician and physicist.
* November 29 – [[Thomas Allinson]] (born [[1858 in science|1858]]), English [[physician]] and dietetic reformer.
* December 26 – [[William Hampton Patton]] (born [[1853 in science|1853]]), American entomologist.
* December 27 – [[Birt Acres]] (born [[1854 in science|1854]]), American-born English pioneer of [[cinematography]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1918 In Science}}
[[Category:1918 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1910s in science]]