Editing 1939 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2012}}
{{Year nav topic5|1939|science}}
{{Science year nav|1939}}

The year '''1939 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* [[Robert Oppenheimer]] jointly predicts two new types of celestial object:
** With [[George Volkoff]], he calculates the structure of [[neutron star]]s.<ref>''Phys. Rev.'' '''55''': pp. 374–381. 1939.</ref>
** With [[Hartland Snyder]], he predicts the existence of what will come to be called [[black hole]]s.<ref>''Phys. Rev.'' '''56''': pp. 455–459. 1939.</ref>

==Biology==
* Autumn – [[DDT]]'s properties as an [[insecticide]] are discovered by [[Paul Hermann Müller|Paul Müller]] of [[Novartis#History|Geigy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1948/|work=NobelPrize.org|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948|accessdate=May 11, 2011}}</ref>

==Cartography==
* [[Kavrayskiy VII projection]] devised by [[Vladimir V. Kavrayskiy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections|first=John P.|last=Snyder|year=1993|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-76747-5}}</ref>

==Chemistry==
* January 7 – French physicist [[Marguerite Perey]] identifies [[francium]], the [[Timeline of chemical element discoveries|last]] [[chemical element]] first discovered in nature, as a decay product of <sup>227</sup>Ac.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elements.vanderkrogt.net/element.php?sym=fr|title=87 Francium|work=Elementymology & Elements Multidict|first=Peter|last=van der Krogt|accessdate=2019-01-07}}</ref>
* April 30 – [[Nylon]] fabric is first introduced to the general public at the [[1939 New York World's Fair|New York World's Fair]].
* July – [[Edward Adelbert Doisy]] of [[Saint Louis University]] publishes the chemical structure of [[vitamin K]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=MacCorquodale|first=D. W.|author2=Binkley, S. B.|author3=Thayer, S. A.|author4=Doisy, E. A.|year=1939|title=On the Constitution of Vitamin K<sub>1</sub>|journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society|volume=61|issue=7|pages=1928–1929|doi=10.1021/ja01876a510}}
</ref>
* [[Linus Pauling]] publishes ''The Nature of the Chemical Bond'', a compilation of a decade's work on [[chemical bonding]], explaining [[orbital hybridization|hybridization theory]], [[covalent bonding]] and [[ionic bonding]] as explained through electronegativity, and [[resonance (chemistry)|resonance]] as a means to explain, among other things, the structure of [[benzene]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Linus Pauling: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954|work=Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1942–1962|publisher=Elsevier|year=1964|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1954/pauling-bio.html|accessdate=2007-02-28}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* September 4 – [[Alan Turing]] and [[Gordon Welchman]] report to the United Kingdom [[Government Code and Cypher School]], [[Bletchley Park]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Michael|authorlink=Michael Smith (newspaper reporter)|title=Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park|edition=rev.|series=Pan Grand Strategy Series|year=2007|publisher=Pan Macmillan|location=London|isbn=978-0-330-41929-1|page=60}}</ref>
* October – [[John Vincent Atanasoff|John V. Atanasoff]] with [[Clifford Berry]] demonstrate the first prototype [[Atanasoff–Berry Computer]] at [[Iowa State University]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Mollenhoff|first=Clark R.|year=1988|title=Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer|isbn=978-0-8138-0032-5|publisher=Iowa State University Press|location=Ames|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/atanasoffforgott0000moll}}</ref>
* Publication of [[Vannevar Bush]]'s article "Mechanization and the Record" proposing a [[proto-hypertext]] [[collective memory]] machine which he soon afterwards calls '[[memex]]'.

==History of science and technology==
* [[Cornelis de Waard]] begins to publish the ''Journaal'' of [[Isaac Beeckman]].
* Philosopher and historian [[Alexandre Koyré]] originates the term ''[[Scientific Revolution]]'' to describe the emergence of [[modern science]] during the [[early modern period]], from the late [[Renaissance]] to the late 18th century.<ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Steven Shapin|first=Steven|last=Shapin|title=The Scientific Revolution|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1996}}</ref>
* [[Quarry Bank Mill]], an 18th-century working (at this time) [[cotton mill]] in northwest England, is donated to the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Richard von Mises]] poses the [[birthday problem]] in [[probability]].<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=133}}</ref>

==Physics==
* January–February – Discovery of [[nuclear fission]] is announced independently by [[Otto Hahn]] and [[Lise Meitner]].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=O.|last1=Hahn|first2=F.|last2=Strassmann|title=Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle|journal=[[Naturwissenschaften]]|volume=27|issue=1|pages=11–15|date=January 6, 1939|doi=10.1007/BF01488241|bibcode=1939NW.....27...11H|s2cid=5920336 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Lise |last1=Meitner |first2=O. R. |last2=Frisch |title=Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=143 |issue=3615 |pages=239–240 |url=http://www.nature.com/physics/looking-back/meitner/index.html |date=February 16, 1939 |doi=10.1038/143239a0 |accessdate=22 May 2011|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525075850/http://www.nature.com/physics/looking-back/meitner/index.html |archivedate=May 25, 2011 |url-status=live |df=mdy |bibcode=1939Natur.143..239M |s2cid=4113262 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=O. R. |last=Frisch |title=Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment |journal=Nature |volume=143 |issue=3616 |pages=276 |date=February 18, 1939 |doi=10.1038/143276a0 |bibcode=1939Natur.143..276F |doi-access=free }}</ref> On January 26, [[Niels Bohr]] reports the splitting of the uranium nucleus with a release of two hundred million electron volts of energy to a conference on the campus of [[George Washington University]] in Washington, D.C.<ref>''Announcement of the Atomic Age'' plaque next to the entrance of the Physics Department at GWU (erected 2002).</ref>
* August 2 – The [[Einstein–Szilard letter]] is signed by [[Albert Einstein]], advising President of the United States [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] of the potential use of [[uranium]] to construct an [[atomic bomb]]. It is delivered on October 11.
* October 21 – First meeting of the [[S-1 Uranium Committee|Advisory Committee on Uranium]] under [[Lyman James Briggs]], authorised by President Roosevelt to oversee [[neutron]] experiments.

==Physiology and medicine==
* [[John H. Lawrence]] uses beams of energized [[neutrons]] from a [[particle accelerator]] to treat a patient with [[leukemia]].
* Drs [[Philip Levine (physician)|Philip Levine]] and Rufus Stetson publish a first case report on the clinical consequences of non-recognized ''[[Rh blood group system|Rh]] factor'', hemolytic [[transfusion reaction]] and [[hemolytic disease of the newborn]] in its most severe form.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Levine|first1=P.|last2=Stetson|first2=R. E.|title=An unusual case of intragroup agglutination|journal=[[JAMA (journal)|JAMA]]|volume=113|issue=2|pages=126–7|year=1939|doi=10.1001/jama.1939.72800270002007a}}</ref>
* [[Maudsley Hospital]] moves to an evacuated school in north London as the [[Mill Hill]] Emergency Hospital where treatment of [[Shell shock|combat stress]] is pioneered.
* [[Intramedullary rod]] is first used by German [[Gerhard Küntscher]].

==Technology==
* January 1 – [[Hewlett-Packard]] is founded as an electronics company in [[Palo Alto, California]].
* January 11 – First flight of the [[Lockheed P-38 Lightning]] in the United States.
* August 27 – Flying the [[Heinkel He 178]], [[Erich Warsitz]] makes the first flight entirely on [[turbojet]] power (the [[Heinkel HeS 3|HeS 3]] [[jet engine]]).
* November 1–2 – [[Physicist]] [[Hans Ferdinand Mayer]] writes the [[Oslo Report]] on German weapons systems and passes it to the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]].
* December 29 – First flight of the Consolidated XB-24 "[[B-24 Liberator|Liberator]]" bomber prototype in the United States.
* [[Homer Dudley]] and Robert Riesz of [[Bell Labs]] in the United States publicly demonstrate the [[Voder]] (voice operating demonstrator) [[speech synthesis]] machine.
* [[Kirlian photography]] is invented by [[Semyon Kirlian]].
* American industrial psychologist [[Fritz Roethlisberger]], with William J. Dickson, publishes ''Management and the Worker: an account of a research program conducted by the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne works, Chicago''.

==Events==
* November 6 – [[Sonderaktion Krakau]]: The [[Gestapo]] arrests scientists from the [[Jagiellonian University]] and other institutions in [[Kraków]], [[Poland]]; on November 27 they are sent to [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]].

==Awards==
* Nobel Prizes
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Ernest Lawrence]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt]], [[Lavoslav Ruzicka]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Gerhard Domagk]]

==Births==
* January 20 – [[Chandra Wickramasinghe]], Ceylonese-born British astronomer.
* January 22 – [[Helmut Rauch]], Austrian physicist (died [[2019 in science|2019]]) 
* April 17 – [[Jan Hoem]], Norwegian population scientist (died [[2017 in science|2017]])
* May 12 – [[Chuck Hull]], American inventor, pioneer of [[3D printing]].
* May 13 - [[Brian J Ford]], British biologist, broadcaster, writer and lecturer.
* May 18 – [[Peter Grünberg]] (died 2018), German physicist, winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* May 19 – [[Dick Scobee]] (killed 1986), American [[astronaut]].
* June 26 – [[Julia Polak]] (died 2014), Argentine-born British [[pathologist]] and pioneer of [[tissue engineering]].
* June 28 – [[Klaus Schmiegel]], German-born organic chemist, inventor of [[Prozac]]
* August 12 – [[David King (chemist)|David King]], South African-born British physical chemist.
* August 19 – [[Alan Baker (mathematician)|Alan Baker]] (died 2018), English mathematician.
* September 9 – [[John Dwyer (medicine)|John Dwyer]], Australian public health practitioner.
* September 24 – [[Jacques Vallée]], French ufologist.
* October 7
** [[John Hopcroft]], American theoretical [[computer scientist]].
** [[Harry Kroto]] (died 2016), English organic chemist, winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* October 10 – [[Neil Sloane]], Welsh-born American mathematician.
* November 7 – [[Barbara Liskov]], American computer scientist, [[Turing Award]] winner.
* November 11 – [[Alf Adams]], English physicist.
* November 18 – [[John O'Keefe (neuroscientist)|John O'Keefe]], American-born British [[neuroscientist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].

==Deaths==
* February 4 – [[Edward Sapir]] (born 1884), American anthropological linguist.
* February 12 – [[S. P. L. Sørensen]] (born 1868), [[Danes|Danish]] [[chemist]].
* March 6
** [[Cuthbert Hilton Golding-Bird]] (born 1848), English [[surgeon]].
** [[Dorothea Pertz]] (born 1859), English [[botanist]].
*April 26 – [[Anne Walter Fearn]] (born 1867), American physician.<ref>{{cite book|first=Philips|last=Clifton J.|chapter=Fearn, Anne Walter|editor-first=Edward T.|editor-last=James|title=Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary|volume=1|year=1971|isbn=978-0-67462-734-5|page=603}}</ref>
* May 14 – [[Fanny Searls]] (born 1851), American botanist.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tiehm |first=Arnold |title=Fanny Searls (1851-1939)| journal=Brittonia |volume=37 |number=1 |year=1985 |page=42| doi=10.1007/BF02809668|s2cid=87755152}}</ref>
* July 15 – [[Eugen Bleuler]] (born 1857), [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[psychiatrist]].
* September 23 – [[Sigmund Freud]] (born 1856), [[Austrians|Austrian]]-born [[psychoanalyst]].
* October 7 – [[Harvey Cushing]] (born 1869), American [[neurosurgeon]].

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

[[Category:1939 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1930s in science]]