Editing 1927 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1927|science}}
{{Science year nav|1927}}

The year '''1927 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and astrophysics==
* [[Edward Emerson Barnard]]'s ''A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way'' is published posthumously.

==Botany==
* The [[Cholodny-Went model]] of [[tropism]] in emerging [[monocotyledon]] shoots is first proposed by [[Nikolai Cholodny]] of the [[University of Kyiv]].

==Chemistry==
* [[Fritz London]] and [[Walter Heitler]] apply quantum mechanics to explain covalent bonding in the hydrogen molecule,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Heitler|first1=Walter|last2=London|first2=Fritz|year=1927|title=Wechselwirkung neutraler Atome und homöopolare Bindung nach der Quantenmechanik|journal=[[Zeitschrift für Physik]]|volume=44|issue=6–7|pages=455–472|bibcode=1927ZPhy...44..455H|doi=10.1007/BF01397394}}</ref> which marks the birth of [[quantum chemistry]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Ivor|last=Grattan-Guinness|title=Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2003|page=1266}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Jagdish|last1=Mehra|author-link1=Jagdish Mehra |first2=Helmut|last2=Rechenberg |author-link2=Helmut Rechenberg |title=The Historical Development of Quantum Theory|publisher=Springer|year=2001|page=540}}</ref>
* [[Amphetamine]] is synthesized (for a second time) by American chemist [[Gordon Alles]] and reported to have [[sympathomimetic]] properties.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Sulzer, D. |author2=Sonders, M. S. |author3=Poulsen, N. W. |author4=Galli, A.|title=Mechanisms of neurotransmitter release by amphetamines: a review|journal=Progress in Neurobiology|volume=75|issue=6|pages=406–433|date=April 2005|pmid=15955613|doi=10.1016/j.pneurobio.2005.04.003|s2cid=2359509}}</ref>

==Environment==
*[[Carbon emissions]] from fossil fuel burning and industry reach one billion tonnes per year.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560|title=A brief history of climate change|work=BBC|access-date=2015-06-17}}</ref>

==Genetics==
* [[Americans|American]] [[biologist]] [[Raymond Pearl]] publishes an influential attack on the basic assumptions of [[eugenics]].<ref>{{cite journal|volume=12|pages=257–266|last=Pearl|first=Raymond|title=The biology of superiority|journal=American Mercury|year=1927}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521275606|pages=169‒202|editor=Engelhardt, Hugo Tristram |editor2=Caplan, Arthur Leonard |last=Allen|first=Garland E.|title=Scientific controversies: case studies in the resolution and closure of disputes in science and technology|chapter=The role of experts in scientific controversy|year=1987}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* Publication of the 2nd edition of ''[[Principia Mathematica]]'' by [[Alfred North Whitehead]] and [[Bertrand Russell]], one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.

==Medicine==
* [[António Egas Moniz]] develops [[cerebral angiography]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/antonio-egas-moniz-wsd/|title=''World of Scientific Discovery'' on Antonio Egas Moniz|work=BookRags|access-date=2011-12-27}}</ref>

==Microbiology==

* [[Ronald Canti]]'s  ground-breaking stop-motion cinematic technique vividly illustrates the microscopic behaviour of normal and neoplastic cells: irradiation is shown to cause immobilisation and mitotic arrest in suspensions of cells.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=February 1929 |title=Canti Film Demonstrates New Research Methods |journal=A.S.C.C. Campaign Notes |volume=11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Canti |first=Ronald |date=1928 |title=Cinematograph demonstration of living tissue cells growing in vitro |journal=Archiv für experimentelle Zellforschung |volume=6 |pages=86–97}}</ref>

==Physics==
* February 23 – [[Germans|German]] [[theoretical physicist]] [[Werner Heisenberg]] writes a letter to fellow physicist [[Wolfgang Pauli]] in which he describes his [[uncertainty principle]] for the first time.
* April – Abbé [[Georges Lemaître]] publishes in the ''Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles'' "Un Univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques"<ref>{{cite journal|first=G.|last=Lemaître|title=Un Univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant rendant compte de la vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques|journal=Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles|volume=47|pages=49–59 |language=fr|bibcode=1927ASSB...47...49L |date=April 1927}} ("[http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1931MNRAS..91..483L&defaultprint=YES&filetype=.pdf A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and Growing Radius Accounting for the Radial Velocity of Extra-galactic Nebulæ]".)</ref> proposing the theory of the [[Metric expansion of space|expansion of the Universe]], deriving what will become known as [[Hubble's law]], making the first estimation of what will become called the [[Hubble constant]],<ref>{{cite arXiv|author-link=Sidney van den Bergh|first=Sidney|last=van den Bergh|title=The Curious Case of Lemaitre's Equation No. 24|eprint=1106.1195|date=2011-06-06 |class=physics.hist-ph}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=David L.|last=Block|title=A Hubble Eclipse: Lemaitre and Censorship|arxiv=1106.3928|date=2011-06-20 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-32254-9_8|journal=Astrophysics and Space Science Library|pages=89–96}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Eugenie Samuel|last=Reich|title=Edwin Hubble in translation trouble|url=http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110627/full/news.2011.385.html|date=2011-06-27|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|doi=10.1038/news.2011.385 |access-date=2011-12-27|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Livio|first=Mario|title=Lost in translation: Mystery of the missing text solved |journal=Nature |volume=479 |issue=7372|date=2011-11-10|pages=171–3|doi=10.1038/479171a|bibcode=2011Natur.479..171L|pmid=22071745|doi-access=free}}</ref> and proposing what becomes known as the [[Big Bang]] theory of the origin of the [[Universe]], which he calls his 'hypothesis of the [[primeval atom]]'.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dp27bi.html|work=People and Discoveries|title=Big bang theory is introduced, 1927|publisher=[[PBS]]|year=1998|access-date=2011-12-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chemsoc.org/timeline/pages/1927.html|title=1927: Lemaître – Big Bang|work=Chemsoc Timeline|publisher=[[Royal Society of Chemistry]]|year=2004|access-date=2011-12-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021021140107/http://www.chemsoc.org/timeline/pages/1927.html|archive-date=2002-10-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* September – [[Niels Bohr]] introduces the principle of [[complementarity (physics)|complementarity]] during the [[Como Conference]]
* October – The fifth [[Solvay Conference]] meets in [[Brussels]] to discuss the newly formulated [[quantum mechanics]]. [[Albert Einstein]] attacks the theories of [[Niels Bohr]] and [[Werner Heisenberg]].

==Technology==
* August 2 – American electrical engineer [[Harold Stephen Black]] invents the [[negative-feedback amplifier]].
* September 7 – [[Philo Farnsworth]]'s electronic [[image dissector]] television camera tube transmits its first image at his laboratory at 202 Green Street in [[San Francisco]].
* November 5 – Completion of a bridge by [[Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing]] in [[Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania]], the world's first railroad bridge of wholly [[Welding|welded]] construction.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pescatore|first1=Jean-Pierre|last2=Borgeot|first2=Jean-Henri|year=2010|chapter=Chapter 10: Welding Steel Structures|editor1-last=Blondeau|editor1-first=Regis|title=Metallurgy and mechanics of welding: processes and industrial application|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9780470393895|page=359}}</ref>
* Date unknown
** [[Emil Lerp]] invents the transportable gasoline [[chainsaw]].
** [[Vibraphone]] developed in its modern form by Henry Schluter of [[J.C. Deagan, Inc.]] in the United States.

==Zoology==
* Last known specimens of the [[Syrian wild ass]] die.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Arthur Holly Compton]], [[Charles Thomson Rees Wilson]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Heinrich Otto Wieland]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Julius Wagner-Jauregg]]
* [[Copley Medal]]: [[Charles Sherrington]]
* [[Wollaston Medal]] for Geology: [[William Whitehead Watts]]

==Births==
* January 13 – [[Sydney Brenner]] (died [[2019 in science|2019]]) [[South Africa]]n-born [[molecular biologist]]; recipient of [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* January 29 – [[Lewis Urry]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), [[Canadians|Canadian]] inventor of the long-lasting [[alkaline battery]].
* March 9 – [[Julian Tudor Hart]] (died [[2018 in science|2018]]), [[British people|British]] [[physician]].
* March 16 – [[Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov|Vladimir Komarov]] (died [[1967 in science|1967]]), [[Russians|Russian]] [[Astronaut|cosmonaut]] on [[Soyuz 1]].
* April 4 – [[Frederick I. Ordway III]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), [[Americans|American]] space scientist.
* April 10 – [[Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] (died [[2010 in science|2010]]), American [[biochemist]] and [[geneticist]]; recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* April 18 – [[Nicole Grasset]] (died [[2009 in science|2009]]), Swiss-French medical [[virologist]] and microbiologist-epidemiologist.
* April 19 – [[Martin Wood (engineer)|Martin Wood]] (died [[2021 in science|2021]]), English applied [[physicist]].
* April 26 – [[Anne McLaren]] (died [[2007 in science|2007]]), [[English people|English]] [[developmental biologist]].
* April 29 – [[Walter Thirring]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), [[Austrians|Austrian]] mathematical physicist.
* May 26 – [[Endel Tulving]], Estonian-Canadian experimental psychologist, cognitive neuroscientist.
* June 10 – [[Eugene Parker]] (died [[2022 in science|2022]]), American solar [[astrophysicist]].
* June 21 – [[Ye Shuhua]], [[Chinese people|Chinese]] astronomer.
* June 22 – [[Karl Schügerl]] (died [[2018 in science|2018]]), Hungarian chemical engineer.
* July 2 – [[R. J. G. Savage]] (died [[1998 in science|1998]]), [[Northern Ireland]]-born [[palaeontologist]].
* July 29 – [[Gerald Westbury]] (died [[2014 in science|2014]]), [[English people|English]] cancer surgeon.
* August 2 – [[Gabriel Horn]] (died [[2012 in science|2012]]), English [[biologist]].
* August 9 – [[Marvin Minsky]] (died [[2016 in the United States|2016]]), American [[computer scientist]], pioneer of [[artificial intelligence]].
* September 4 – [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]] (died [[2011 in science|2011]]), American computer scientist and [[cognitive scientist]].
* October 27 – [[Mikhail Postnikov]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[mathematician]], known for his work in [[Algebraic topology|algebraic]] and [[differential topology]].
* November 12 – [[Yutaka Taniyama]] (suicide [[1958 in science|1958]]), [[Japanese people|Japanese]] mathematician.
* November 13 – [[Billy Klüver]] (died [[2004 in science|2004]]), Swedish-American engineer, co-founded [[Experiments in Art and Technology]]  
* November 20 – [[Kikuo Takano]] (died [[2006 in science|2006]]), [[Japan]]ese poet and mathematician.
* November 27 – [[Arnold Clark]] (died [[2017 in science|2017]]), Scottish inventor.
* December 9 – [[Ralph Kohn]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), German-born British medical scientist
* December 23 – [[Edith Irby Jones]], born Edith Mae Irby (died [[2019 in science|2019]]), [[African American]] [[physician]].
* December 27 – [[George Streisinger]] (died [[1984 in science|1984]]), [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born molecular biologist, first person to [[Cloning|clone]] a vertebrate.

==Deaths==
* January 19 – [[Carl Gräbe]] (born [[1841 in science|1841]]), [[Germans|German]] [[chemist]].
* February 9 – [[Charles Doolittle Walcott|Charles Walcott]] (born [[1850 in science|1850]]), American [[paleontologist]].
* March 4 – [[Ira Remsen]] (born [[1846 in science|1846]]), American chemist.
* March 27 – [[William Healey Dall]] (born [[1845 in science|1845]]), American [[malacologist]] and explorer.
* May 2 – [[Ernest Starling]] (born [[1866 in science|1866]]), English [[physiologist]].
* August 3 – [[Edward B. Titchener]] (born [[1867 in science|1867]]), American [[Structuralism (psychology)|structuralist]] [[psychologist]].
* August 13 – [[James Oliver Curwood]] (born [[1887 in science|1887]]), American novelist and [[Conservation movement|conservationist]].
* September 14 – [[Julian Sochocki]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), [[Poland|Polish]]-born [[mathematician]].
* October 2 – [[Svante Arrhenius]] (born [[1859 in science|1859]]), [[Swedes|Swedish]] winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* November 11 – [[Wilhelm Johannsen]] (born [[1857 in science|1857]]), [[Danes|Danish]] [[plant physiologist]] and geneticist.
* December 2 – [[Paul Heinrich von Groth]] (born [[1843 in science|1843]]), German [[mineralogist]].
* December 24 – [[Vladimir Bekhterev]] (born 1857), Russian psychologist.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1927 In Science}}
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[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1920s in science]]