Editing 1923 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1923|science}}
{{Science year nav|1923}}
The year '''1923 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Aeronautics==
* January 17 (or 9) – First stable flight of the first [[rotorcraft]], [[Juan de la Cierva]]'s [[Cierva C.4]] [[autogyro]], in Spain.

==Astronomy and space science==
* June – [[Hermann Oberth]] publishes ''[[Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen]]'' ("By Rocket into Planetary Space").
* October 21 – First official public showing of a [[planetarium]] projector, a [[Carl Zeiss AG|Zeiss]] model at the [[Deutsches Museum]] in [[Munich]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chartrand|first=Mark|date=September 1973|title=A Fifty Year Anniversary of a Two Thousand Year Dream (The History of the Planetarium)|periodical=The Planetarian|publisher=International Planetarium Society|volume=2|issue=3|url=http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/twothousandyr_dream.html|issn=0090-3213|accessdate=2009-02-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090420022543/http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/twothousandyr_dream.html|archive-date=2009-04-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Biology==
* March 23 – The [[governor of Oklahoma]] signs House Bill 197 with the Montgomery amendment outlawing the [[theory of evolution]] in public school textbooks purchased by the state, the first anti-[[Darwinian]] legislation passed in the United States.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/A/AN011.html|title=Anti-Evolution Movement|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|first=Larry|last=O'Dell|access-date=2010-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018195600/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/A/AN011.html|archive-date=2010-10-18|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Karl von Frisch]] publishes "Über die 'Sprache' der Bienen. Eine tierpsychologische Untersuchung" ("On the 'language' of bees: an examination of animal psychology").<ref>''Zoologische Jahrbücher (Physiologie)'' '''40''': pp. 1–186.</ref>

==Chemistry==
* [[Dirk Coster]] and [[George de Hevesy]] publish their discovery of the [[transition metal]] [[Chemical element|element]] [[hafnium]] (<sub>72</sub>Hf) in [[zirconium]] ore, working in [[Copenhagen]] ([[Latin]]: ''Hafnia'').<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=111|page=79|date=20 January 1923|doi=10.1038/111079a0|title=On the Missing Element of Atomic Number 72|first1= D.|last1=Coster|last2=Hevesy|first2=G.|issue=2777|bibcode=1923Natur.111...79C|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Discovery and Properties of Hafnium|first=G.|last=Hevesy|journal=[[Chemical Reviews]]|year=1925|volume=2|page=1|doi=10.1021/cr60005a001}}</ref>
* [[Niels Bohr]] and Dirk Coster, working in Copenhagen, produce a paper on [[X-ray spectroscopy]] and the [[periodic system]] of the elements.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bohr|first1=N.|last2=Coster|first2=D.|date=December 1923|title=Röntgenspektren und periodisches System der Elemente|journal=[[Zeitschrift für Physik A]]|volume=12|issue=1|pages=342–374|doi=10.1007/BF01328104|bibcode=1923ZPhy...12..342B|s2cid=120877752 }}</ref>
* [[Gilbert N. Lewis]] and [[Merle Randall]]'s  textbook ''Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Reactions'' is influential in the replacement of the concept of ''[[chemical affinity]]'' by ''[[Thermodynamic free energy|free energy]]''.<ref>According to chemistry historian Henry M. Leicester.</ref>

==Cryptography==
* [[Enigma machine]] first produced commercially.<ref>{{cite book|last=Singh|first=Simon|authorlink=Simon Singh|year=1999|title=[[The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography]]|location=London|publisher=Fourth Estate|isbn=1-85702-879-1}}</ref>

==Electronics==
* [[Otto Julius Zobel]] of [[Bell Labs]] describes the type of [[signal processing]] [[filter (signal processing)|filter]] sections based on the [[image impedance]] design principle which will become known as [[Zobel network]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Zobel|first=O. J.|title=Theory and Design of Uniform and Composite Electric Wave Filters|journal=Bell System Technical Journal|volume=2|year=1923|pages=1–46|doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1923.tb00001.x}}</ref>
* December 29 – [[Vladimir K. Zworykin]] files his first [[patent]] (in the [[United States]]) for "television systems".

==Exploration==
* [[Tanager Expedition]].

==Medicine==
* February – The [[Maudsley Hospital]], established jointly by the [[London County Council]] and [[Henry Maudsley]], admits its first psychiatric patients.
* [[Capgras delusion]], a [[delusional misidentification syndrome]], is first described by [[Joseph Capgras]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Capgras|first1=Joseph|last2=Reboul-Lachaux|first2=Jean|title=Illusion des "sosies" dans un délire systématisé chronique|journal=Bulletin de la Société Clinique de Médicine Mentale|volume=2|pages=6–16|year=1923|url=https://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/histoire/medica/resultats/index.php?do=page&cote=epo1250&p=1|trans-title=Illusion of "doubles"}}</ref>
* First [[diphtheria vaccine]] by [[Gaston Ramon]], [[Emil von Behring]] and [[Kitasato Shibasaburō]].

==Paleontology==
* July 13 – An [[American Museum of Natural History]] expedition to [[Mongolia]] under [[Roy Chapman Andrews]] is the first in the world to discover [[fossil]] [[dinosaur]] [[egg (biology)|eggs]]. Initially thought to belong to the [[ceratopsian]] ''[[Protoceratops]]'', they are determined in 1995 actually to belong to the [[theropod]] ''[[Oviraptor]]''.<ref>{{cite web|first=David|last=Fastovsky|url=http://www.gso.uri.edu/maritimes/Back_Issues/00%20Summer/Text(htm)/protoceratops.htm|title=Life and Death in a 70 Million-Year-Old Sand Sea|accessdate=2011-02-14}}</ref> On August 11 Peter Kaisen recovers the first ''[[Velociraptor]]'' fossil known.<ref>[[AMNH]] 6515. {{cite journal|last=Osborn|first=Henry F.|authorlink=Henry Fairfield Osborn|year=1924|title=Three new Theropoda, ''Protoceratops'' zone, central Mongolia|journal=American Museum Novitates|issue=144|pages=1–12|hdl=2246/3223}}</ref>

==Physics==
* [[Arthur Eddington]] publishes the textbook ''[[List of important publications in physics|The Mathematical Theory of Relativity]]'' in [[Cambridge]].

==Technology==
* [[Herbert Grove Dorsey]] invents the first practical [[fathometer]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]]: [[Robert Andrews Millikan]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]]: [[Fritz Pregl]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]]: [[Frederick Banting]] and [[John Macleod (physiologist)|John Macleod]]
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Horace Lamb]]
* [[Wollaston Medal]] for Geology: [[William Whitaker (geologist)|William Whitaker]]

==Births==
* January 1 – [[Daniel Gorenstein]] (died [[1992 in science|1992]]), [[Americans|American]] [[mathematician]].
* January 11 – [[Robert J. Gorlin]] (died [[2006 in science|2006]]), American [[pathologist]].
* February 13 – [[Chuck Yeager]] (died [[2020 in science|2020]]), American pilot.
* February 14 – [[Doris Calloway]], née Howes (died [[2001 in science|2001]]), American [[nutritionist]].
* February 20 – [[Helen Murray Free]] (died [[2021 in science|2021]]), American medical chemist.
* March 4 – [[Patrick Moore]] (died [[2012 in science|2012]]), English [[astronomer]].
* March 9 – [[Walter Kohn]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), Viennese-born [[physicist]].
* March 10 – [[Val Logsdon Fitch]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), American nuclear physicist, recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* April 1 – [[Brigitte Askonas]] (died [[2013 in science|2013]]), Viennese-born British [[immunologist]].
* April 2 – [[G. Spencer-Brown]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), English mathematician.
* April 16 – [[Stewart Adams (chemist)|Stewart Adams]] (died [[2019 in science|2019]]), English pharmaceutical chemist.
* April 21 – [[:nl:Albert C. Perdeck|Albert (Ab) C. Perdeck]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[ornithologist]].
* April 23 – [[Walter Pitts]] (died [[1969 in science|1969]]), American [[logician]] and [[cognitive psychologist]].
* July 5 – [[Ivo Pitanguy]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), [[Brazil]]ian [[Plastic surgery|plastic surgeon]].
* July 12 – [[René Favaloro]] (died [[2000 in science|2000]]), [[Argentine]] [[cardiac surgeon]].
* July 23 – [[Ulf Grenander]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), [[Sweden|Swedish]]-born [[mathematician]].
* July 28 – [[Xia Peisu]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), Chinese computer scientist.
* July 31 – [[Stephanie Kwolek]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), American [[Polymer chemistry|polymer chemist]].
* August 19 – [[Edgar F. Codd]] (died [[2003 in science|2003]]), English-born computer scientist.
* September 9 – [[Daniel Carleton Gajdusek]] (died [[2008 in science|2008]]), American virologist.
* September 13 – [[Miroslav Holub]] (died [[1998 in science|1998]]), Czech immunologist and poet.
* September 26 – [[John Ertle Oliver]] (died [[2011 in science|2011]]), American geophysicist.
* October 29 – [[Carl Djerassi]] (died [[2015 in science|2015]]), Viennese-born chemist.
* November 8 – [[Jack Kilby]] (died [[2005 in science|2005]]), American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
* November 18 – [[Alan Shepard]] (died 1998), American [[astronaut]].
* December 13 – [[Philip Warren Anderson]] (died [[2020 in science|2020]]), American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
* December 15 – [[Freeman Dyson]] (died [[2020 in science|2020]]), English-born theoretical physicist.

==Deaths==
* February 10 – [[Wilhelm Röntgen]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), German [[physicist]], discoverer of [[X-ray]]s, [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] laureate.
* February 24 – [[Edward Morley]] (born [[1838 in science|1838]]), American [[chemist]].
* March 8 – [[Johannes Diderik van der Waals]] (born [[1837 in science|1837]]), Dutch physicist.
* March 27 – [[James Dewar]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), Scottish-born chemist.
* April 11 – [[Mary Treat]] (born [[1830 in science|1830]]), American naturalist.
* July 16 – [[Sydney Mary Thompson]] (born [[1847 in science|1847]]), Irish-born [[geologist]] and [[botanist]].
* August 23 – [[Hertha Ayrton]] (born [[1854 in science|1854]]), English [[electrical engineer]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Catharine M. C.|last=Haines|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|location=Santa Barbara|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2001|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|page=12}}</ref>
* October 3 – [[Kadambini Ganguly]] (born [[1861 in science|1861]]), Indian [[physician]].
* December 2 – [[Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen]] (born [[1834 in science|1834]]), English [[Surveyor (surveying)|surveyor]], [[geologist]] and [[Natural history|naturalist]].
* December 7 – [[Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet|Sir Frederick Treves]] (born [[1853 in science|1853]]), English-born [[surgeon]].
* December 27 – [[Gustave Eiffel]] (born [[1832 in science|1832]]), French [[structural engineer]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1923 In Science}}
[[Category:1923 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1920s in science]]