Editing 1958 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1958|science}}
{{Science year nav|1958}}

The year '''1958 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Events==
* During [[International Geophysical Year]]
** [[Earth]]'s [[magnetosphere]] is discovered.
** The [[3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition]] discovers the [[glacier|subglacial]] [[Gamburtsev Mountain Range]] in [[Antarctica]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aadc-maps.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=2515 |title=Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains |accessdate=2011-11-17 |author=Australian Antarctic Data Centre |publisher=Australian Government, Antarctic Division |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070920213340/http://aadc-maps.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=2515 |archivedate=2007-09-20 }}</ref> also becoming the first to reach the Southern [[Pole of Inaccessibility]] (December 14).
** The [[Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition]] completes (March 2) its three-year mission to make the first overland crossing of [[Antarctica]], via the [[South Pole]]. The first (and third ever) team to reach the Pole overland (January 3) is [[Edmund Hillary]]'s, using adapted [[Ferguson TE20#Famous Fergies|Ferguson TE20]] [[tractor]]s, the first powered vehicles to complete a trip here.
* April 17–October 19 – [[Expo 58]] in [[Brussels]]. The centrepiece is the [[Atomium]]; and a model of [[tobacco mosaic virus]] structure by [[Rosalind Franklin]]'s research team is exhibited.
* July 9 – [[1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami]]: A 7.8 {{M|w}} strike-slip earthquake in [[Southeast Alaska]] causes a [[landslide]] that produces a [[megatsunami]]. The runup from the waves reaches {{convert|525|m|abbr=on}} on the rim of [[Lituya Bay]].

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 4 – [[Sputnik 1]] falls to Earth from its orbit and burns up (launched on October 4, 1957).
* January 31 – The first successful American [[satellite]], [[Explorer I]], is launched into orbit.
* February 5 – A backup for [[Vanguard TV3]] fails to reach orbit.
* February 11 – The strongest known [[solar maximum]] is recorded.<ref>As of 2012. {{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm?list862664|title=Solar Storm Warning|work=Science@NASA|date=2006-03-10|accessdate=2012-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513053551/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm?list862664|archive-date=2009-05-13|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* March 5 – [[Explorer 2]] fails to reach orbit.
* March 17 – [[Vanguard 1]] becomes the first of its program to enter space, after three failed attempts.
* March 26 – [[Explorer 3]] is launched into orbit.
* April 14 – [[Sputnik 2]] re-enters Earth's atmosphere.
* July 29 – The [[United States Congress]] formally creates the [[NASA|National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA).
* September 14 – Two [[Mohr rocket|rockets]] designed by [[Ernst Mohr]] (the first post-war [[Germany|German]] rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.
* December 18 – The United States launches [[SCORE (satellite)|SCORE]], the world's first [[communications satellite]].

==Biology==
* [[Francis Crick]] states the "[[central dogma of molecular biology]]".<ref>{{cite book|last=Crick|first=F. H. C.|chapter=On Protein Synthesis|editor=Saunders, F. K.|title=Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology, Number '''XII''': The Biological Replication of Macromolecules|date=1958|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=138–163}}</ref>
* [[John Gurdon]] [[Cloning|clones]] a frog using [[somatic-cell nuclear transfer]] from a ''[[Xenopus]]'' tadpole.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J. B.|authorlink1=John Gurdon|last2=Elsdale|first2=T. R.|last3=Fischberg|first3=M.|doi=10.1038/182064a0|title=Sexually Mature Individuals of Xenopus laevis from the Transplantation of Single Somatic Nuclei|journal=Nature|volume=182|issue=4627|pages=64–65|year=1958|pmid=13566187|bibcode=1958Natur.182...64G|s2cid=4254765}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J. B.|authorlink=John Gurdon|title=The developmental capacity of nuclei taken from intestinal epithelium cells of feeding tadpoles|journal=Journal of Embryology and Experimental Morphology|volume=10|pages=622–640|year=1962|pmid=13951335}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J. B.|authorlink=John Gurdon|last2=Byrne|first2=J. A.|title=The first half-century of nuclear transplantation|doi=10.1073/pnas.1337135100|pmid=12821779|pmc=166179|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=100|issue=14|pages=8048–8052|year=2003|bibcode=2003PNAS..100.8048G|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J. B.|s2cid=6185731|doi=10.1146/annurev.cellbio.22.090805.140144|title=From Nuclear Transfer to Nuclear Reprogramming: The Reversal of Cell Differentiation|journal=Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology|volume=22|pages=1–22|year=2006|pmid=16704337}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J. B.|last2=Melton|first2=D. A.|doi=10.1126/science.1160810|title=Nuclear Reprogramming in Cells|journal=Science|volume=322|issue=5909|pages=1811–1815|year=2008|pmid=19095934|bibcode=2008Sci...322.1811G|doi-access=}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kain|first1=K.|title=The birth of cloning: An interview with John Gurdon|doi=10.1242/dmm.002014|journal=Disease Models and Mechanisms|volume=2|issue=1–2|pages=9–10|year=2009|pmid=19132124|pmc=2615171}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=R.|title=Sir John Gurdon: Godfather of cloning|doi=10.1083/jcb.1812pi|journal=The Journal of Cell Biology|volume=181|issue=2|pages=178–179|year=2008|pmid=18426972|pmc=2315664}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J.|title=John Gurdon|journal=Current Biology|volume=13|issue=19|pages=R759–R760|year=2003|pmid=14521852|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2003.09.015|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gurdon|first1=J.|title=Not a total waste of time. An interview with John Gurdon. Interview by James C Smith|journal=The International Journal of Developmental Biology|volume=44|issue=1|pages=93–99|year=2000|pmid=10761853}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2012/press.html|publisher=Nobel Media AB|date=2012-10-08|accessdate=2012-10-08|title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – 2012 Press Release}}</ref>
* [[Anne McLaren]], with John D. Biggers, reports the first mammals, a litter of mice, grown from [[embryo]]s developed ''[[in vitro]]'' and transferred to a surrogate mother.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Successful Development and Birth of Mice cultivated ''in vitro'' as Early Embryos|pages=877–8|first1=Anne|last1=McLaren|first2=J. D.|last2=Biggers|doi=10.1038/182877a0|pmid=13590153|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|date=27 September 1958|volume=182|issue=4639|bibcode=1958Natur.182..877M|s2cid=4217944}}</ref>
* Danish virologist [[Preben von Magnus]] gives the first confirmation of [[monkeypox virus]] and description of [[monkeypox]] (in laboratory [[crab-eating macaque]]s).<ref>{{cite web|title=Monkeypox|url=https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html|website=CDC|access-date=2017-10-15|date=2015-05-11|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015113128/https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html|archive-date=2017-10-15}}</ref>

==Chemistry==
* [[Denatonium]], the [[bitter (taste)|bitterest]] [[chemical compound]] known (used as an [[aversive agent]]), is discovered during research on [[local anesthetic]]s by [[Macfarlan Smith]] of [[Edinburgh]], [[Scotland]], and registered under the trademark ''Bitrex''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bitrex|url=http://www.macsmith.com/index.php?page=bitrex|publisher=Johnson Mathey Macfarlan Smith|accessdate=2012-03-30|archive-date=2010-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100817091300/http://www.macsmith.com/index.php?page=bitrex|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Instant noodle]]s introduced by [[Momofuku Ando]].

==Computer science==
* May 27–June 2 – A joint meeting of the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] and [[Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik|GAMM]] at [[ETH Zurich]] agrees to produce the ''International Algebraic Language'', which will become the [[programming language]] [[ALGOL]].
* [[Friedrich L. Bauer]] and other members of the ZMMD-Group build a working [[ALGOL 58]] [[compiler]].
* [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]] specifies the [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] [[programming language]].

==History of science==
* [[Society for the History of Technology]] established.

==Mathematics==
* [[School Mathematics Study Group]], directed by [[Edward G. Begle]], established to develop a new school mathematics [[curriculum]] for the [[United States]]; it is influential in the promotion of [[New Math]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/AHistory.html|title=A Brief History of American K-12 Mathematics Education in the 20th Century|first=David|last=Klein|year=2003|accessdate=2011-10-14}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* May 22 – [[Jérôme Lejeune]], working with [[Marthe Gautier]] in [[Raymond Turpin]]'s French laboratory, discovers that the genetic cause of [[Down syndrome]] is an extra copy of [[Chromosome 21 (human)|chromosome 21]],<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Lejeune, Jérôme |author2=Gautier, Marthe |author3=Turpin, Raymond |title=Les chromosomes humains en culture de tissus|journal=Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k32002/f618.image|year=1959|volume=248|pages=602–603|accessdate=2014-11-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Lejeune, Jérôme |author2=Gautier, Marthe |author3=Turpin, Raymond |title=Étude des chromosomes somatiques de neuf enfants mongoliens|journal=Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k32002/f1759.image|volume=248|issue=11|year=1959|pages=1721–1722|accessdate=2014-11-25}}</ref> the first time that a defect in intellectual development is shown to be linked to [[chromosomal abnormalities]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gautier|first=Marie|author2=Harper, P. S.|title=Fiftieth anniversary of trisomy 21: returning to a discovery|journal=Human Genetics|year=2009|volume=126|issue=2|pages=317–324|doi=10.1007/s00439-009-0690-1|s2cid=30299551|url=http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/education/women_science_medicine/_pdfs/Trisomy%2021%20article.pdf}}</ref>
* June 7 – [[Ian Donald]] publishes an article in ''[[The Lancet]]'' which describes the diagnostic use of [[ultrasound]] in [[obstetrics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/lancet.html|title=Ian Donald's paper in ''The Lancet'' in 1958|accessdate=2008-01-27|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112010620/http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/lancet.html|archivedate=12 January 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>
* October 31 – The first clinical implantation into a human of a fully implantable artificial pacemaker takes place at the [[Karolinska Institute]] in Solna, [[Sweden]], using a pacemaker designed by [[Rune Elmqvist]] and surgeon [[Åke Senning]]. The patient, Arne Larsson (1915–2001), survives until age 86, having been fitted with 22 pacemakers throughout his life.
* Engineer [[Earl Bakken]] (U.S.) produces the first ''wearable'' external [[artificial pacemaker]], for a patient of Dr. [[C. Walton Lillehei]].
* B. Eiseman and colleagues from Colorado first describe [[fecal microbiota transplantation]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Eiseman, B. |author2=Silen, W. |author3=Bascom, G. S. |title=Fecal enema as an adjunct in the treatment of pseudomembranous enterocolitis|journal=Surgery|year=1958|volume=44|pages=854–859|pmid=13592638|issue=5|display-authors=etal}}</ref>
* [[Denis Parsons Burkitt]] first describes [[Burkitt's lymphoma]].<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|2511}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Burkitt|first=D.|title=A sarcoma involving the jaws in African children|journal=The British Journal of Surgery|volume=46|issue=197|pages=218–23|year=1958|pmid=13628987|doi=10.1002/bjs.18004619704|s2cid=46452308}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* February 7 – Discovery of "[[:File:Niah Cave skull. Homo Sapiens 45,000 to 39,000 Years Old.jpg|Deep Skull]]" in [[Niah Caves]] in [[Sarawak]] by [[Barbara Harrisson|Barbara]] and [[Tom Harrisson]], at around 40,000 years BP the oldest known evidence of ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' in [[southeast Asia]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Tim|display-authors=etal|editor1-last=Kaifu|editor1-first=Yousuke|display-editors=etal|title=Emergence and Diversity of Modern Human Behavior in Paleolithic Asia|date=2015|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|chapter=Reconstructing Late Pleistocene Climates, Landscapes and Human Activities in Northern Borneo from Excavations in the Niah Caves}}</ref>

==Psychology==
* [[Fritz Heider]] proposes the naïve scientist model of [[social cognition]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The psychology of interpersonal relations|last=Heider|first=Fritz|publisher=Wiley|year=1958|location=New York}}</ref>

==Technology==
* January 28 – The classic [[Lego]] brick is [[patent]]ed in Denmark.
* April 1 – The [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]] is established in London.
* September 12 – [[Jack Kilby]] demonstrates the first [[integrated circuit]].
* December 8 – First production [[Leyland Atlantean]] rear-engined [[double-decker bus]] enters service in England. 
* December 15 – [[Arthur Leonard Schawlow|Arthur L. Schawlow]] and [[Charles H. Townes]] of [[Bell Laboratories]] publish a paper in ''[[Physical Review|Physical Review Letters]]'' setting out the principles of the optical [[laser]].
* December 18 – The [[Bell XV-3]] [[Tiltrotor]] makes the first true mid-air transition from vertical helicopter-type flight to fully level fixed-wing flight.
* [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[rally driver]] [[Maus Gatsonides]] introduces his first roadside automobile speed measurement device.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gatso History|publisher=Gatsometer BV|location=Haarlem|url=http://www.gatso.com/about/history.html|accessdate=2011-12-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201192541/http://www.gatso.com/about/history.html|archive-date=2011-12-01|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Fields Medal|Fields Prize in Mathematics]]: [[Klaus Roth]] and [[René Thom]]
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov]],  [[Ilya Mikhailovich Frank]], [[Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Frederick Sanger]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[George Wells Beadle]], [[Edward Lawrie Tatum]], [[Joshua Lederberg]]<ref>{{cite web |title=6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903184929/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 3, 2019 |website=National Geographic News |access-date=19 January 2021 |language=en |date=19 May 2013}}</ref>

==Births==
* January 15 – [[Debi Prasad Sarkar]], Indian [[biochemist]]
* February 26 – [[Susan J. Helms]], American [[astronaut]]
* June 4 – [[Thomas Callister Hales]], American mathematician
* July 14 – [[Anthony Atala]], Peruvian-born American [[regenerative medicine]] practitioner
* July 15 – [[Monica Grady]], British [[meteorite]] scientist
* August 16 – [[Anne L'Huillier]], French-born atomic physicist ([[Nobel Prize in Physics]] 2023)
* October 5 – [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]], American astrophysicist

==Deaths==
* February 1 – [[Clinton Davisson]] (born [[1888 in science|1888]]), American physicist ([[Nobel Prize in Physics]] 1937)
* February 11 – [[Ernest Jones]] (born [[1879 in science|1879]]), Welsh [[psychoanalyst]]
* April 16 – [[Rosalind Franklin]] (born [[1920 in science|1920]]), English [[X-ray crystallography|crystallographer]]
* August 14 – [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie]] (born [[1900 in science|1900]]), French [[physicist]] ([[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] 1935)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1935 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1935/joliot-fred/facts/ |website=NobelPrize.org |access-date=2 January 2022}}</ref>
* August 16 – [[Chevalier Jackson]] (born [[1865 in science|1865]]), American [[laryngologist]] and pioneer of [[endoscopy]]
* August 27 – [[Ernest Lawrence]] (born [[1901 in science|1901]]), American nuclear physicist (Nobel Prize in Physics 1939)
* October 2 – [[Marie Stopes]] (born [[1880 in science|1880]]), Scottish [[paleobotanist]] and pioneer of [[birth control]]
* November 17 – [[Yutaka Taniyama]] (born [[1927 in science|1927]]), Japanese mathematician (suicide)
* December 12 – [[Milutin Milanković]] (born 1879), Serbian [[geophysicist]]
* December 15 – [[Wolfgang Pauli]] (born 1900), Austrian [[theoretical physicist]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1958 In Science}}
[[Category:1958 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1950s in science]]