Editing 1921 in science

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{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{Year nav topic5|1921|science}}
{{Science year nav|1921}}

The year '''1921 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space science==
* Commencement of [[Gas Dynamics Laboratory]] the first [[Soviet]] research and development laboratory to focus on [[rocket technology]].<ref name="R&P_Vol1">{{cite book |last1=Chertok |first1=Boris |title=Rockets and People |date=31 January 2005 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration |pages=164–165 |edition=Volume 1 |url=https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/rockets_people_vol1_detail.html |access-date=29 May 2022}}</ref>

==Cartography==
* [[Winkel tripel projection]] proposed.

==Chemistry==
* [[Étienne Biéler]] and [[James Chadwick]] publish a key paper on the [[strong interaction]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Collisions of Particles with Hydrogen Nuclei|journal=[[Philosophical Magazine]]|volume=42|issue=252|year=1921|pages=923–940|url=http://www.nssp.uni-saarland.de/lehre/Vorlesung/Kernphysik_SS14/History/Papers/Chadwick_Bieler.pdf|access-date=2014-08-31|archive-date=2014-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819102746/http://www.nssp.uni-saarland.de/lehre/Vorlesung/Kernphysik_SS14/History/Papers/Chadwick_Bieler.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* December 9 – [[Thomas Midgley Jr.|Thomas Midgley]] discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of [[tetraethyllead]], which is used in "leaded" [[gasoline]] (petrol).

==Exploration==
* [[Danes|Danish]] explorer [[Lauge Koch]] first sets foot on and names [[Kaffeklubben Island]], [[Extreme points of Earth|the northernmost point of land on Earth]].

==Mathematics==
* [[John Maynard Keynes]] publishes ''[[A Treatise on Probability]]''.
* [[Marston Morse]] applies the [[Thue–Morse sequence]] to [[differential geometry]].
* [[Emmy Noether]] publishes ''Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen'', developing [[ideal (ring theory)|ideal ring theory]], an important text in the field of [[abstract algebra]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know|url=https://archive.org/details/50mathematicalid0000cril|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/50mathematicalid0000cril/page/57 57]}}</ref>
* First publication of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]'s ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'', as "Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung" in ''Annalen der Naturphilosophie''.
* [[Percy Alexander MacMahon]] depicts [[Cairo pentagonal tiling]].<ref>{{cite book|title=New Mathematical Pastimes|first=Major P. A.|last=Macmahon|location=Cambridge|publisher=University Press|year=1921|page=101|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924001535024/page/n115/mode/2up}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* April–August – [[Nicolae Paulescu]] publishes papers on the preparation and therapeutic effects in animal subjects of an aqueous [[pancreatic]] extract.
* July 18 – The first [[Bacillus Calmette-Guérin|BCG]] vaccination against [[tuberculosis]].
* July 27 – Researchers at the [[University of Toronto]] led by [[biochemist]] [[Frederick Banting]] announce the discovery of the [[hormone]] [[insulin]].
* American biochemist [[Elmer McCollum]] identifies the presence of a component in [[cod liver oil]] which cures [[rickets]], which he calls [[vitamin D]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/printarticle/239341|first=Suzanne|last=Carere|title=Age-old children's disease back in force|work=thestar.com|location=Toronto|date=2007-07-25|accessdate=2012-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517044348/http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/239341|archive-date=2008-05-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Fidel Pagés]] pioneers [[epidural anesthesia]].

==Physics==
* July – [[Wolfgang Pauli]] is awarded his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] at [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]] for his thesis ''Über das Modell des Wasserstoff-Molekülions'' ("About the Hydrogen Molecular Ion Model").
* [[T. Kaluza]] demonstrates that a five-dimensional version of [[Albert Einstein]]'s equations unifies [[gravitation]] and [[electromagnetism]].

==Psychology==
* [[Hermann Rorschach]] publishes ''[[Psychodiagnostik]]'', proposing the [[Rorschach test|inkblot test]].
* [[Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault]] publishes ''{{lang|fr|Les Psychoses passionelles}}'', a comprehensive review of [[erotomania]].

==Technology==
* Spring and summer – 14-year-old American farm boy [[Philo Farnsworth]] devises the [[image dissector]], the basis for the first version of television.
* October 18 – [[Charles Strite]] is granted a [[patent]] for the automatic electric pop-up bread [[toaster]].<ref>[[:File:United States patent 1,394,450, "Bread-Toaster", 1921.pdf|United States patent#1,394,450.]]</ref>
* October 25 – Hugo A. F. Abt is granted a patent for his design of [[bascule bridge]].<ref>[http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/phrailb/patent2.pdf United States patent #1,394,519.]</ref>
* Henrik Brun devises the thermal string [[Undershirt|vest]] in Norway.<ref>{{cite web|title=The story of Brynje|url=https://www.brynje.no/gb/en/historie|publisher=Brynje|location=Norway|accessdate=2024-11-06}}</ref>
* The [[vibraphone]] in its original form is invented in the United States.

==Institutions==
* Journalist [[E. W. Scripps]] and biologist [[William Emerson Ritter]] found ''Science Service'', later renamed [[Society for Science and the Public]], in the United States with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific developments.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Albert Einstein]] – awarded 1922
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Frederick Soddy]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]] – not awarded

==Births==
* January 18 – [[Yoichiro Nambu]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), Japanese-American [[nuclear physicist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* February 3 – [[Ralph Asher Alpher]] (died [[2007 in science|2007]]), American cosmologist.
* March 11 – [[Léopold Reichling]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), [[Luxembourg]] [[biologist]] and [[naturalist]].
* April 19 – [[Michel Klein (veterinarian)|Michel Klein]] (died [[2024 in science|2024]]), Romanian-born French veterinarian.
* April 21 – [[John R. Huizenga]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), American nuclear physicist.
* April 30
** [[Roger L. Easton]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), American [[physicist]], principal inventor of the [[Global Positioning System]].
** [[Ralph A. Lewin]] (died [[2008 in science|2008]]), Anglo-American [[biologist]], "the father of green algae genetics".
** [[Jennifer Moyle]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), English research biochemist.
* May 18
** [[Anthony Epstein]] (died 2024), British pathologist.
** [[Olgierd Zienkiewicz]] (died 2009), British [[civil engineer]].
* June 1 – [[Giuliana Tesoro]] (died [[2002 in science|2002]]), Italian-American [[organic chemist]].
* June 9 – [[Forrest Bird]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), American [[biomedical engineer]].
* June 14 – [[George Rédei]] (died 2008), [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]] [[biologist]].
* June 15 – [[Gavriil Ilizarov]] (died [[1992 in science|1992]]), [[Poland|Polish]]-born [[orthopedic surgeon]].
* June 26 – [[Anne Beloff-Chain]] (died 1991), British [[biochemist]].
* July 4 – [[Aron Arthur Moscona]] (died 2009), American [[Developmental biology|developmental biologist]].
* July 18
** [[Aaron T. Beck]] (died [[2021 in science|2021]]), American [[psychiatrist]], "father of [[cognitive therapy]]".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Smith, Vicki|author2=Collard, Patrizia|author3=Nicolson, Paula|title=Key Concepts In Counselling And Psychotherapy: A Critical A-Z Guide To Theory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCzEuAlW2vcC&pg=PA21|date=2012|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education (UK)|isbn=978-0-335-24221-4|page=21}}</ref>
** [[John Glenn]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), American [[astronaut]].
* August 16 – [[Rudolf Trümpy]] (died 2009), [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[geologist]].
* October 5 – [[Mahlon Hoagland]] (died 2009), American biochemist, discoverer of [[transfer RNA]] (tRNA).
* October 18 – [[Beatrice Helen Worsley]] (died [[1972 in science|1972]]), Mexican-born Canadian [[computer scientist]].
* October 21 – [[Victor A. McKusick]] (died 2008), American "father of genetic medicine".
* December 2 – [[Isabella Karle]] (died [[2017 in science|2017]]), American physical chemist

==Deaths==
* January 20 – [[Mary Watson Whitney]], American [[astronomer]] (born [[1847 in science|1847]])<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=McHenry|title=Liberty's Women|location=Springfield|publisher=G. & C. Merriam|year=1980|page=442|isbn=978-0-87779-064-8}}</ref>
* January 23 – [[Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz]] (born [[1836 in science|1836]]), German [[neuroanatomist]].
* March 11 – [[Sherburne Wesley Burnham]] (born [[1838 in science|1838]]), American astronomer.
* March 29 – [[John Burroughs]] (born [[1837 in science|1837]]), American [[Natural history|naturalist]].
* June 7 – [[Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen]] (born [[1856 in science|1856]]), [[Danes|Danish]] [[ornithologist]].
* August 29 – [[Joel Asaph Allen]] (born [[1838 in science|1838]]), American [[zoologist]].
* October 23 – [[John Boyd Dunlop]] (born [[1840 in science|1840]]), British [[inventor]].
* December 12 – [[Henrietta Swan Leavitt]] (born [[1868 in science|1868]]), American astronomer.

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:1921 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1920s in science]]