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1938 in science
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{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] --> {{Year nav topic5|1938|science}} {{Science year nav|1938}} The year '''1938 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below. ==Astronomy== *June 28 – A 450-[[metric ton|ton]] [[meteorite]] strikes the Earth in an empty field near [[Chicora, Pennsylvania]], United States. ==Biology== * December 22 – [[Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer]] discovers a [[Coelacanth]], formerly seen only in [[fossils]] millions of years old, in a fisherman's catch in [[South Africa]]. * Last known (captive) specimen of [[Schomburgk's deer]] is killed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ellis|first=Richard|authorlink=Richard Ellis (biologist)|title=No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species|publisher=Harper Perennial|date=2004|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/noturningbacklif00elli/page/311 311]–312|isbn=0-06-055804-0|url=https://archive.org/details/noturningbacklif00elli|url-access=registration}}</ref> * Bawden and Pirie publish the first crystal of a spherical [[virus]], [[Tomato bushy stunt virus]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bawden|first1=F. C.|last2=Pirie|first2=N. W.|year=1938|title=Crystalline Preparations of Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus|pmc=2065153|journal=British Journal of Experimental Pathology|volume=19|page=251}}</ref> ==Chemistry== * April 6 – [[Roy J. Plunkett]] of [[DuPont]] accidentally discovers [[polytetrafluoroethylene]] (Teflon). * September 20 – The first [[patent]]s for [[nylon]] (first [[chemical synthesis|synthesized]] in [[1935 in science|1935]]) are granted in the name of [[Wallace Carothers]] to DuPont.<ref>US Patent 2,130,523 ''Linear polyamides suitable for spinning into strong pliable fibers''; US Patent 2,130,947 ''Diamine dicarboxylic acid salt'' and US Patent 2,130,948 ''Synthetic fibers''. {{cite web|title=The history of nylon |url=http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 |first=L. |last=Trossarelli |publisher=Club Alpino Italiano, Centro Studi Materiali e Tecniche |year=2010 |accessdate=2012-02-28 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425044410/http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 |archivedate=2012-04-25 |url-status=live }}</ref> The first items produced in the new material are [[toothbrush]] [[bristle]]s. * November 16 – [[Lysergic acid diethylamide]] is first synthesized by [[Albert Hofmann]] from [[ergotamine]] at the [[Sandoz Laboratories]] in [[Basel]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Hofmann|first=Albert|url=http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child.htm|title=LSD — My Problem Child|publisher=McGraw–Hill|year=1980|isbn=978-0-07-029325-0}}</ref> * [[Melamine]] thermosetting resin is developed by [[American Cyanamid]]. ==Computer science== * [[Konrad Zuse]] in Berlin completes his [[Z1 (computer)|Z1 computer]], a [[floating point]] [[Binary numeral system|binary]] mechanical calculator with limited programmability, using [[Boolean logic]] and reading instructions from perforated 35 mm film.<ref>Talk given by [[Horst Zuse]] to the [[Computer Conservation Society]] at the [[Science Museum (London)]] on 18 November 2010.</ref> ==History of science== * [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Leopold Infeld]] publish ''[[The Evolution of Physics]]''. ==Mathematics== * [[Frank Benford]] restates the [[Benford's law|law of distribution of first digits]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Frank|last=Benford|title=The Law of Anomalous Numbers|journal=[[Proc. Am. Philos. Soc.]]|volume=78|issue=4|year=1938|pages=551–572|jstor=984802}}</ref> * [[Alan Turing]] completes his Ph.D. thesis, ''[[Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals]]'', at [[Princeton University]]; it is presented to the [[London Mathematical Society]] on June 16.<ref>{{cite journal|first=A. M.|last=Turing|title=Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals|journal=[[Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society]] |series=Series 2|volume=45|issue=1|year=1939|pages=161–228|doi=10.1112/plms/s2-45.1.161|hdl=21.11116/0000-0001-91CE-3|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Turing's Princeton Dissertation|url=http://www.princeton.edu/turing/alan/dissertation/|work=Turing Centennial Celebration|year=2012|publisher=Princeton University|accessdate=2013-02-05}}</ref> ==Medicine== * June 4–6 – [[Sigmund Freud]] and his immediate family leave [[Vienna]] for exile in London. * March 4 – American [[biogerontologist]] [[Raymond Pearl]] demonstrates the negative health effects of [[tobacco smoking]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pearl|first=R.|title=Tobacco Smoking and Longevity|doi=10.1126/science.87.2253.216|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=87|issue=2253|pages=216–217|year=1938|pmid=17813231|bibcode=1938Sci....87..216P}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0874369670|last=Cordry|first= Harold V.|title=Tobacco: a reference handbook|url=https://archive.org/details/tobaccoreference0000cord|url-access=registration|location=Santa Barbara, California|series=Contemporary world issues|year=2001}}</ref> * August – [[Dorothy Hansine Andersen]] describes the characteristic [[cystic fibrosis]] of the [[pancreas]] and correlates it with the [[Coeliac disease|celiac]], [[Respiratory disease|respiratory]] and [[intestinal disease]]s prominent in the condition, also first hypothesizing that cystic fibrosis is a [[recessive]] disorder.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Andersen|first=Dorothy Hansine|title=Cystic fibrosis of the pancreas and its relation to celiac disease: a clinical and pathological study|journal=[[American Journal of Diseases of Children]]|year=1938|volume=56|issue=2|pages=344–399|doi=10.1001/archpedi.1938.01980140114013}}</ref> * October – [[Robert Edward Gross]] becomes the first surgeon successfully to [[Ligature (medicine)|ligate]] an uninfected [[patent ductus arteriosus]], in [[Boston]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gross|first=Robert|last2=Hubbard|first2=John|date=1939|title=Surgical Ligation of a Patent Ductus Arteriosus|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association]]|volume=112|issue=8|pages=729|doi=10.1001/jama.1939.02800080049011|issn=0002-9955}}</ref> * [[Hans Asperger]] first adopts the term ''[[autism]]'' in its modern sense in referring to ''autistic psychopaths'' in a lecture (in German) on [[child psychology]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift|year=1938|volume=51|pages=1314–7|title=The psychically abnormal child|last=Asperger|first=H.|language=German}}</ref> * [[Ugo Cerletti]] and [[Lucio Bini]] discover [[electroconvulsive therapy]]. * Philip Wiles of [[Middlesex Hospital]] in London carries out a total [[hip replacement]] using a stainless-steel prosthesis.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Reynolds, L. A.|title=Early Development of Total Hip Replacement|publisher=Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London|year=2006|isbn=978-085484-111-0}}</ref> * American endocrinologist [[Henry Turner (endocrinologist)|Henry Turner]] describes [[Turner syndrome]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Turner, H. H.|year=1938|title=A syndrome of infantilism, congenital webbed neck and cubitus valgus|journal=[[Endocrinology (journal)|Endocrinology]]|volume=23|issue=5|pages=566–74|doi=10.1210/endo-23-5-566}}</ref> ==Physics== * December 17 – [[Discovery of nuclear fission]] by [[Otto Hahn]], [[Lise Meitner]] and [[Fritz Strassmann]] with [[Otto Robert Frisch]]. * [[Herbert E. Ives]] and G. R. Stilwell execute the [[Ives–Stilwell experiment]], showing that [[ion]]s radiate at [[Frequency|frequencies]] affected by their motion.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ives|first=Herbert E.|author2=Stilwell, G. R.|year=1938|title=An Experimental Study of the Rate of a Moving Atomic Clock|journal=[[Journal of the Optical Society of America]]|volume=28|issue=7|pages=215–19|bibcode=1938JOSA...28..215I|url=http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=josa-28-7-215|accessdate=2011-09-23|doi=10.1364/JOSA.28.000215|url-access=subscription}}</ref> * [[Nuclear magnetic resonance]] is first described and measured in [[molecular beam]]s by [[Isidor Rabi]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Rabi, I.I. |author2=Zacharias, J.R. |author3=Millman, S. |author4=Kusch, P. |title=A New Method of Measuring Nuclear Magnetic Moment|journal =[[Physical Review]]|volume=53|year=1938|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.53.318|issue=4|bibcode=1938PhRv...53..318R|pages=318–327|doi-access=free}}</ref> * The [[Vlasov equation]] is first proposed for description of [[Plasma (physics)|plasma]] by [[Anatoly Vlasov]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=A. A.|last=Vlasov|title=On Vibration Properties of an Electron Gas|journal=[[Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics]]|volume=8|pages=444–70|year=1938|url=http://ufn.ru/ru/articles/1967/11/f/|language=Russian|issue=3|accessdate=2011-09-23}}</ref> ==Technology== * [[László Bíró]] obtains his first [[patent]] for a [[ballpoint pen]], in France. ==Publications== * [[Ștefan Odobleja]] begins publication of his ''Psychologie consonantiste'' in Paris, seen in Romania as originating the study of [[cybernetics]]. ==Awards== * [[Nobel Prize]]s ** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Enrico Fermi]] ** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Richard Kuhn]] ** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Corneille Jean François Heymans]] * [[Copley Medal]]: [[Niels Bohr]] * [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for geology]]: [[Maurice Lugeon]] ==Births== * January 2 ** [[Lynn Conway]], American computer engineer ** [[Farouk El-Baz]], Egyptian-American space scientist ** [[Dana Ulery]], American computer scientist * January 10 – [[Donald Knuth]], American computer scientist and mathematician * January 28 – [[Tomas Lindahl]], [[Swedes|Swedish]] [[biochemist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] * March 5 – [[Lynn Margulis]], American [[biologist]] (d. [[2011 in science|2011]]) * March 7 – [[David Baltimore]], American biologist, [[university administrator]] and recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] * March 31 – [[Dennis H. Klatt]], American pioneer of [[speech synthesis]] (d. [[1988 in science|1988]]) * April 3 – [[John M. Darley|John Darley]], American [[social psychologist]] * April 25 – [[Roger Boisjoly]], American rocket engineer (d. [[2012 in science|2012]]) * May 11 – [[Fritz-Albert Popp]], German biophysicist * May 16 – [[Ivan Sutherland]], American computer scientist and [[Turing Award]] winner * June 29 – [[David Barker (epidemiologist)|David Barker]], English epidemiologist (d. [[2013 in science|2013]]) * July 2 – [[C. Kumar N. Patel]], Indian electrical engineer * July 19 – [[Jayant Narlikar]], Indian astrophysicist * September 3 – [[Ryōji Noyori]], Japanese chemist, [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel]] laureate * September 17 – [[Alec Broers, Baron Broers]], British electrical engineer * September 26 – [[Alan Andrew Watson]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[astrophysicist]] * September 30 – [[Alfred Cuschieri]], [[Malta]]-born [[Laparoscopy|laparoscopic]] [[surgeon]] * October 4 – [[Kurt Wüthrich]], Swiss chemist, [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize]] laureate * October 22 – [[Michael Berridge]], Rhodesian-born British physiologist and biochemist (d. [[2020 in science|2020]]) * November 7 – [[Edgardo Gomez]], Filipino biologist (d. [[2019 in science|2019]]) * December 7 – [[George Hockham]], English electrical engineer (d. [[2013 in science|2013]]) * December 23 – [[Bob Kahn]], American Internet pioneer ==Deaths== * January 31 – Sir [[James Crichton-Browne]], [[Scottish people|Scottish]] [[psychiatrist]] (b. [[1840 in science|1840]]) * May 3 – [[Percy Furnivall]], English [[surgeon]] (b. [[1868 in science|1868]]) * May 16 ** [[Fred Baker (physician)|Fred Baker]], American [[physician]] and [[naturalist]] (b. [[1854 in science|1854]]) ** [[Joseph Strauss (engineer)|Joseph Strauss]], American bridge engineer (b. [[1870 in science|1870]]) * June 13 – [[Beverly Thomas Galloway]], American [[plant pathologist]] (b. [[1863 in science|1863]]) * November 20 – [[Edwin Hall]], American [[physicist]], discoverer of the "[[Hall effect]]" (b. [[1855 in science|1855]]) ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:1938 in science| ]] [[Category:20th century in science]] [[Category:1930s in science]]
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