Editing 1959 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1959|science}}
{{Science year nav|1959}}

The year '''1959 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 2 – Soviet spacecraft ''[[Luna 1]]'' is launched by a [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok rocket]] from the [[Baikonur Cosmodrome]]; the first man-made object to attain [[escape velocity]], it is intended to impact Earth's [[Moon]], but an error causes it instead to become the first spacecraft to fly by the Moon and the first man-made object to enter [[heliocentric orbit]].
* February 6 – At [[Cape Canaveral]], Florida, the first successful test firing of a [[Titan (rocket family)|Titan]] [[intercontinental ballistic missile]] is accomplished.
* February 17 – [[Vanguard 2]], the first [[weather satellite]], is launched to measure [[cloud cover]] for the [[United States Navy]].
* March 3 – Lunar probe [[Pioneer 4]] becomes the first American object to escape dominance by Earth's gravity.
* April 9 – [[NASA]] announces its selection of seven [[Aviator#Military|military pilots]] to become the first United States [[astronaut]]s, later known as the '[[Mercury Seven]]'.
* May 28 – [[PGM-19 Jupiter#Biological flights|Jupiter AM-18]] rocket launches two primates, [[Miss Baker]] and Miss Able, into space from [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|Cape Canaveral]] in the United States along with living microorganisms and plant seeds. Successful recovery makes them the first living beings to return safely to Earth after space flight.
* June 25 – A KH-1 [[Corona (satellite)|Corona satellite]], believed to be the first operational spy satellite, is launched as science mission "Discoverer 4" from [[Vandenberg Air Force Base]], California, aboard a [[Thor-Agena]] rocket.
* July 7 – At 14:28 UT [[Venus]] [[Occultation|occults]] the star [[Regulus]]. The rare event (which will next occur on October 1, 2044) is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
* August 7 – The United States launches the [[Explorer 6]] satellite from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral.
* August 14 – [[Explorer 6]] sends the first picture of Earth from orbit.
* September 14 – Soviet spacecraft ''[[Luna 2]]'' becomes the first man-made object to crash on Earth's Moon.
* September 19 – [[Giuseppe Cocconi]] and [[Philip Morrison]] establish the scientific rationale for [[SETI]] with the publishing of their seminal paper "Searching for Interstellar Communications" in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.
* October 7 – Russian probe ''[[Luna 3]]'' sends back the first images of the far side of Earth's Moon.
* October 13 – The United States launches research satellite [[Explorer 7]].
* November 24 – [[Yardymli meteorite]] makes a landfall in [[Azerbaijan]].
* December 4 – [[Little Joe 2]], a mission in the [[Mercury program]], carries [[Monkeys and apes in space|Sam]], a rhesus macaque monkey, close to the edge of space.
* [[Coma Berenicids]] discovered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/coma_berenicids.html|title=Coma Berenicids|work=Meteor Showers Online|accessdate=2011-11-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125061207/http://meteorshowersonline.com/showers/coma_berenicids.html|archive-date=2010-11-25|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* First successful test of a [[nuclear thermal rocket]] engine, as part of [[Project Rover]] at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in the United States under [[Raemer Schreiber]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/31/us/re-schreiber-88-nuclear-bomb-physicist.html|accessdate=2013-10-04|title=R. E. Schreiber, 88, Nuclear Bomb Physicist|first=Eric|last=Pace|date=31 December 1998}}</ref>

==Biology==
* January 1 – [[Cultivar]]s of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
* March 26 – [[Jersey]] Zoo (later [[Durrell Wildlife Park]]) established by [[Gerald Durrell]].
* August 8 – [[Min Chueh Chang]] reports the first mammals, a litter of rabbits, grown from [[ovum|ova]] having undergone [[In vitro fertilisation|''in vitro'' fertilisation]] and transferred to a surrogate mother.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Fertilization of Rabbit Ova ''in vitro''|pages=466–67|first=M. C.|last=Chang|doi=10.1038/184466a0|pmid=13809155|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|year=1959|volume=184|issue=4684|bibcode = 1959Natur.184..466C }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Roy O.|last=Greep|title=Min Chueh Chang|url=http://books.nap.edu//html/biomems/mchang.html|work=Biographical Memoirs|publisher=[[United States National Academy of Sciences]]|year=1991|accessdate=2011-08-15}}</ref>
*The term ''[[pheromone]]'' is coined.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/183055a0|author1=Karlson Peter|author2=Lüscher Martin|year=1959|title=Pheromones: a new term for a class of biologically active substances|journal=Nature|volume=183|issue=4653|pages=55–56|pmid=13622694|bibcode=1959Natur.183...55K}}</ref>
*[[Pierre-Paul Grassé]] invents the theory of [[stigmergy]] to explain the behavior of nest building in [[termites]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=P.-P.|last=Grassé|title=La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations inter-individuelles chez Belicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. La théorie de la Stigmergie: Essai d’interprétation du comportement des termites constructeurs|journal=Insectes Sociaux|issue=6|pages=41–80|year=1959}}</ref>
* The [[Caspian tiger]] becomes extinct in [[Iran]].

==Chemistry==
* B. J. Davis and Leonard Ornstein first describe the use of [[acrylamide]] in [[gel electrophoresis]] at a scientific meeting.<ref>{{cite web|title=Disc Electrophoresis |url=http://www.pipeline.com/~lenornst/DiscElectrophoresis.html |accessdate=2011-10-16 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926213111/http://www.pipeline.com/~lenornst/DiscElectrophoresis.html |archivedate=2011-09-26 }}</ref>

==Computer science==
* December – The specification for the [[programming language]] [[COBOL]] is completed.
* [[IBM]] ship the [[transistor]]-based [[IBM 1401]] mainframe.
* [[Grigore Moisil]] publishes ''Teoria algebrică a mecanismelor automate'' [Algebraic theory of automatic machines], on [[automata theory]], in Bucharest.

==History of science==
* [[Society for the History of Technology]] begins publication of the journal ''[[Technology and Culture]]''.

==Mathematics==
* July 21 – The inaugural [[International Mathematical Olympiad]], a competition for pre-university students, is held, in Romania.
* October – [[Martin Gardner]] presents the [[Three Prisoners problem]] in [[probability theory]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gardner|first=Martin|title=Mathematical Games: Problems involving questions of probability and ambiguity|journal=[[Scientific American]]|date=October 1959|volume=201|issue=4|pages=174–182|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1059-174|bibcode=1959SciAm.201d.174G}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Gardner|first=Martin|title=Mathematical Games: How three modern mathematicians disproved a celebrated conjecture of Leonhard Euler|journal=Scientific American|date=November 1959|volume=201|issue=5|page=188|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1159-181|bibcode=1959SciAm.201e.181G}}</ref>
* [[Edsger W. Dijkstra]] rediscovers '[[Prim's algorithm]]'.
* [[Kenkichi Iwasawa]] initiates [[Iwasawa theory]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Iwasawa|first=Kenkichi|title=On Γ-extensions of algebraic number fields|doi=10.1090/S0002-9904-1959-10317-7|mr=0124316|year=1959|journal=[[Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society]]|volume=65|issue=4|pages=183–226|zbl=0089.02402|issn=0002-9904|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* July – The Japanese medical research group studying [[Minamata disease]] comes to the conclusion that [[mercury (element)|mercury]] is the cause.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu35ie/uu35ie0c.htm|title=Minamata disease|publisher=[[United Nations University]]|accessdate=2010-10-17}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Murray]] performs the world's first successful [[allotransplantation]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Calixto|last=Machado|title=The first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor|journal=[[Neurology (journal)|Neurology]]|year=2005|volume=64|pages=1938–42|issue=11|doi=10.1212/01.wnl.0000163515.09793.cb|pmid=15955947}}</ref>
* [[Georges Mathé]], a [[French people|French]] [[oncologist]], performs the first [[bone marrow transplant]] on five [[Yugoslavia]]n nuclear workers whose own marrow has been damaged by intense irradiation caused by a [[criticality accident]] at the [[Vinča Nuclear Institute]], but all of these transplants are [[Transplant rejection|rejected]].<ref>{{cite web|last=McLaughlin|first=Thomas P. |title=A Review of Criticality Accidents|publisher=[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]]|work=CSRIC|url=http://www.csirc.net/docs/reports/la-13638.pdf|page=96|quote=Radiation doses were intense, being estimated at 205, 320, 410, 415, 422, and 433 [[Röntgen equivalent man|rem]].74 Of the six persons present, one died and the other five recovered after severe cases of radiation sickness.|date=May 2000|display-authors=etal|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926101253/http://www.csirc.net/docs/reports/la-13638.pdf|archive-date=2007-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/1958YUG1.html|title=Vinca reactor accident, 1958|first=Wm. Robert|last=Johnston|work=Database of radiological incidents and related events – Johnston's Archive|date=2005-09-14|accessdate=2012-07-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Georges Mathé, Transplant Pioneer, Dies at 88|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/health/research/21mathe.html|date=2010-10-20|last=Martin|first=Douglas}}</ref>
* First known case of human [[HIV]], in the [[Belgian Congo]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Pence|first=G. E.|year=2008|chapter=Preventing the Global Spread of AIDS|title=Medical Ethics: Accounts of the Cases That Shaped and Define Medical Ethics|url=https://archive.org/details/classiccasesinme0000penc|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/classiccasesinme0000penc/page/330 330]|location=New York|publisher=McGraw-Hill}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* July 17 – ''[[Paranthropus]] boisei'' (originally designated ''Zinjanthropus''), an [[Australopithecine]], is found in the [[Olduvai Gorge]] of [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]] by [[Mary Leakey|Mary]] and [[Louis Leakey]], dating from between 2.6 and 1.1 million years BP.
* First [[femur]] of [[Arlington Springs Man]] is found on [[Santa Rosa Island, California]], by Phil C. Orr. The remains are subsequently dated to 13,000 years BP, making them potentially the oldest known human remains in North America.

==Physics==
* [[Yakir Aharonov]] and [[David Bohm]] predict the [[Aharonov–Bohm effect]].
* Austria joins [[CERN]].
* December 29 – [[Richard Feynman]] delivers a lecture "[[There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom]]", anticipating the field of [[nanotechnology]].

==Technology==
* June 9 – The [[USS George Washington (SSBN-598)|USS ''George Washington'']] is launched at [[Groton, Connecticut]], as the first submarine to carry [[ballistic missile]]s (December 30 – commissioned).
* June 14 – At [[Disneyland]] in [[Anaheim, California]], new rides are opened in the [[Tomorrowland (Disney Parks)#Disneyland|Tomorrowland]] area, designed by [[Bob Gurr]]:
** The [[Disneyland Monorail]], the world's first regularly operating passenger-carrying [[monorail]] ([[Alweg]] system).<ref>{{cite book|last=Strodder|first=Chris|title=The Disneyland Encyclopedia|year=2017|publisher=Santa Monica Press|isbn=978-1595800909|edition=3rd|pages=336–337}}</ref>
** The [[Matterhorn Bobsleds]], the world's first tubular [[steel roller coaster]], constructed by [[Arrow Development]].<ref>{{cite web|website=Aceonline.org|url=http://www.aceonline.org/CoasterAwards/?type=3|publisher=ACE|title=Coaster Landmark Awards|access-date=2025-04-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212021831/http://aceonline.org/CoasterAwards/?type=3|archive-date=2010-12-12|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* August 13 – First automobile delivered with the modern form of three-point [[seat belt]] developed by [[Nils Bohlin]] for [[Volvo]] in Sweden.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/the-man-who-saved-a-million-lives-nils-bohlin--inventor-of-the-seatbelt-1773844.html|title=The man who saved a million lives: Nils Bohlin - inventor of the seat belt|newspaper=The Independent|location=London|date=2009-08-19|access-date=2009-12-08}}</ref>
* August 31 – [[Frank Der Yuen]] is granted a United States [[patent]] for the [[jet bridge]] (passenger boarding bridge).<ref>{{cite web|title=Apparatus for facilitating the loading and unloading of passengers and cargo : US Grant US3046908A|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3046908}}</ref>
* September 16 – The [[Xerox 914]], the first plain paper copier, is introduced to the public.
* November – The [[MOSFET]] (metal–oxide–semiconductor [[field-effect transistor]]), also known as the MOS [[transistor]], is invented by [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] at [[Bell Labs]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/metal-oxide-semiconductor-mos-transistor-demonstrated/|title=1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated|journal=The Silicon Engine|publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref><ref name="Bassett22">{{cite book |last=Bassett |first=Ross Knox |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=9780801886393 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA22}}</ref> It revolutionizes the [[electronics industry]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chan |first1=Yi-Jen |title=Studies of InAIAs/InGaAs and GaInP/GaAs heterostructure FET's for high speed applications |date=1992 |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sV4eAQAAMAAJ |page=1 |quote=The Si MOSFET has revolutionized the electronics industry and as a result impacts our daily lives in almost every conceivable way.}}</ref> becomes the fundamental building block of the [[Information Age]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Wong |first=Kit Po |title=Electrical Engineering|volume=II |date=2009 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems|EOLSS Publications]] |isbn=9781905839780 |page=7}}</ref> and goes on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.<ref>{{cite web |title=13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/13-sextillion-counting-the-long-winding-road-to-the-most-frequently-manufactured-human-artifact-in-history/ |date=2018-03-02|publisher=Computer History Museum|access-date=2019-07-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Baker |first=R. Jacob |title=CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout and Simulation |date=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1118038239 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxYhNrOKuJQC&pg=PA7}}</ref>
* [[Agfa]] introduces the first fully automatic [[camera]], the ''Optima''.
* [[Eveready Battery]] engineer [[Lewis Urry]] invents the long-lasting [[alkaline battery]].
* [[Gordon Gould]] publishes the term [[Laser]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gould|first=R. Gordon|year=1959|chapter=The LASER, Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation|editor=Franken, P. A.|editor2=Sands, R. H.|title=The Ann Arbor Conference on Optical Pumping, the University of Michigan, 15 June through 18 June 1959|page=128|oclc=02460155}}</ref>
* [[Pilkington Brothers]] [[patent]] the [[float glass process]] invented by [[Alastair Pilkington]].<ref>{{cite book|editor=Challoner, Jack|title=1001 Inventions That Changed the World|location=London|publisher=Cassell|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84403-611-0|page=754}}</ref>

==Events==
* May 7 – English scientist and novelist [[C. P. Snow]] delivers an influential [[Rede Lecture]] on ''[[The Two Cultures]]'', concerning a perceived breakdown of communication between the [[science]]s and [[humanities]], in the [[Senate House (University of Cambridge)|Senate House, University of Cambridge]]. It is subsequently published as ''The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution''.
* [[Lois Graham]] becomes the first woman in the United States to earn a [[PhD]] in [[mechanical engineering]], at [[Illinois Institute of Technology]].<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Graham|first=Lois|title=Effect of adding a combustible to atmosphere surrounding diffusion flame|year=1959|oclc=45226021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://alumni.iit.edu/alumni-awards-2015-graham|title=Alumni Awards 2015: Lifetime Achievement Award: Lois Graham (M.S. ME '49, Ph.D. '59)|year=2015|publisher=Illinois Institute of Technology|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120222616/https://alumni.iit.edu/alumni-awards-2015-graham|archive-date=2018-11-20|url-status=live|access-date=2018-11-20}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Emilio Gino Segrè]], – [[Owen Chamberlain]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Jaroslav Heyrovský]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Severo Ochoa]], [[Arthur Kornberg]]

==Births==
* March 9 – [[Takaaki Kajita]], Japanese nuclear physicist ([[Nobel Prize in Physics]] 2015).
* May 27 – [[Donna Strickland]], Canadian physicist (Nobel Prize in Physics 2018).
* August 3 – [[Koichi Tanaka]], Japanese chemist ([[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] 2002).
* August 29 – [[Stephen Wolfram]], British-born mathematician.
* September 7 – [[Drew Weissman]], American biochemist ([[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] 2013).<ref>{{cite news|first=James|last=Gallagher|title=Nobel Prize goes to scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines|work=[[BBC News]]|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66983060|date=2023-10-02|accessdate=2023-10-02}}</ref>
* September 22 – [[Saul Perlmutter]], American [[astrophysicist]] (Nobel Prize in Physics 2011).
* October 16 – [[Pamela C. Rasmussen]], American [[ornithologist]].
* December 25 – [[Michael P. Anderson]] (died [[2003 in science|2003]]), American [[astronaut]].

==Deaths==
* January 21 – [[Frances Gertrude McGill]] (born [[1882 in science|1882]]), pioneering Canadian [[forensic pathologist]].
* February 15 – [[Owen Willans Richardson|Sir Owen Richardson]] (born [[1879 in science|1879]]), English [[physicist]] ([[Nobel Prize in Physics]] [[1928 in science|1928]]).
* June 9 – [[Adolf Windaus]] (born [[1876 in science|1876]]), German [[chemist]] ([[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] 1928).
* June 11 – [[Grantly Dick-Read]] (born [[1890 in science|1890]]), English [[obstetrician]].
* September 30 – [[Ross Granville Harrison]] (born [[1870 in science|1870]]), American [[physiologist]].
* October 29
** [[Samuel James Cameron]] (born [[1878 in science|1878]]), Scottish obstetrician.
** [[Edith Clarke]] (born [[1883 in science|1883]]), American electrical engineer, inducted into the [[National Inventors Hall of Fame]]
* November 15 – [[C. T. R. Wilson]] (born [[1869 in science|1869]]), Scottish physicist (Nobel Prize in Physics [[1927 in science|1927]]).

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1959 In Science}}
[[Category:1959 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1950s in science]]