Editing 1962 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1962|science}}
{{Science year nav|1962}}

The year '''1962 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 26 – The [[Ranger 3]] [[space probe]] is launched to study the [[Moon]], but later misses it by 22,000 miles.
* February 4–5 – During a [[new moon]] and total [[Solar eclipse of February 5, 1962|solar eclipse]], an extremely rare [[grand conjunction]] of the [[classical planets]] occurs, including all five of the [[naked-eye planet]]s plus the Sun and Moon, all within 16° of each another on the [[ecliptic]].
* February 19 – [[February 1962 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]].
* February 20 – [[Mercury program]]: While aboard ''[[Mercury Atlas 6|Friendship 7]]'', [[John Glenn]] orbits the [[Earth]] three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to do so.
* April 26 – The [[Ranger 4]] spacecraft crashes into the [[Moon]]. It is also the first spacecraft to impact the [[far side of the Moon]] as well.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Discussion |journal=Space Policy |volume=14 |issue=1 |year=1998 |pages=5–8 |doi=10.1016/S0265-9646(97)00038-6 |bibcode=1998SpPol..14....5. }}</ref>
* May 24 – Mercury program: [[Scott Carpenter]] becomes the second American to orbit the Earth aboard ''[[Aurora 7]]''.
* July 17 – [[July 1962 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]].
* July 11 – First live transatlantic television broadcast from the [[United States]] to [[United Kingdom|Britain]], via [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]]'s [[Telstar]], the world's first active, direct relay [[communications satellite]] (launched the previous day on a [[NASA]] [[Delta rocket]] from [[Cape Canaveral]]) and [[Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The First Transatlantic Satellite Relay|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723002418/http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/telstar.html|archivedate=2011-07-23|url=http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/telstar.html|work=British TV History|accessdate=2012-01-10}}</ref>
* July 22 – [[Mariner program]]: The [[Mariner 1]] spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
* July 31 – [[Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962|Annular solar eclipse]].
* August 5 – [[3C 273]], the first object to be identified as a [[quasar]], is found by [[John Gatenby Bolton|John Bolton]] with the [[radio telescope]] at the [[Parkes Observatory]] in [[New South Wales]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Brad|last=Collis|title=Fields of Discovery: Australia's CSIRO|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldsdiscoverya00coll_879|url-access=limited|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=2002|page=[https://archive.org/details/fieldsdiscoverya00coll_879/page/n410 391]|bibcode=2002fdac.book.....C }}</ref>
* August 15 – [[August 1962 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]].
* September 29 – The Canadian ''[[Alouette 1]]'', the first satellite built outside the United States or the Soviet Union, is launched from [[Vandenberg Air Force Base]] in [[California]].
* December 14 – [[Mariner program]]: The [[Mariner 2]] spacecraft flies by [[Venus]], the first to carry out a successful planetary encounter.
* [[Olin Eggen]], [[Donald Lynden-Bell]], and [[Allan Sandage]] theorize [[galaxy formation]] by a single (relatively) rapid monolithic collapse, with the halo forming first, followed by the disk.

==Biology==
* May 1 – [[Douglas Harold Copp]] discovers of the hormone [[calcitonin]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Copp|first1=D. Harold|last2=Cameron|first2=E. C.|last3=Cheney|first3=Barbara A.|last4=Davidson|first4=A. George F.|last5=Henze|first5=K. G.|date=1962|title=Evidence for Calcitonin—A New Hormone from the Parathyroid That Lowers Blood Calcium|url=https://academic.oup.com/endo/article-lookup/doi/10.1210/endo-70-5-638|journal=[[Endocrinology (journal)|Endocrinology]]|volume=70|issue=5|pages=638–649|doi=10.1210/endo-70-5-638|pmid=13881211 |issn=0013-7227|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* August – The "[[Hastings Rarities]]" are exposed as [[Ornithology|ornithological]] [[fraud]]s.<ref>In the magazine ''[[British Birds (magazine)|British Birds]]''.</ref>
* [[Emile Zuckerkandl]] and [[Linus Pauling]] publish a paper introducing what will become known as the [[molecular clock]] concept.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zuckerkandl|first1=E.|first2=L.|last2=Pauling|editor=Kasha, M.|editor2=Pullman, B.|title=Horizons in Biochemistry: Albert Szent-Györgyi dedicatory volume|year=1962|publisher=Academic Press|location=New York|pages=189–225|chapter=Molecular Disease, Evolution and Genetic Heterogeneity}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Gregory J.|last=Morgan|title=Emile Zuckerkandl, Linus Pauling, and the Molecular Evolutionary Clock, 1959-1965|journal=Journal of the History of Biology|volume=31|issue=2|year=1998|pages=155–178|doi=10.1023/A:1004394418084|pmid=11620303|s2cid=5660841 }}</ref>
* The first [[nude mouse]] strain is discovered by N. R. Grist at [[Ruchill]] Hospital's Brownlee virology laboratory in [[Glasgow]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mouse (immunodeficient)|url=http://www.animalresearch.info/en/science/animalsused/mouse-nude|work=AnimalResearch.info|accessdate=2011-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904024255/http://www.animalresearch.info/en/science/animalsused/mouse-nude|archive-date=2011-09-04|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=NMRI Nude Mice|url=http://www.criver.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/NMRI%20nude24.04.07.pdf|publisher=Charles River|accessdate=2011-08-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001044057/http://www.criver.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/NMRI%20nude24.04.07.pdf|archive-date=2011-10-01|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The [[Neuroscience Research Program]] (NRP) is established by [[Francis O. Schmitt]] ''et al''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://newsoffice.mit.edu/1995/obit-schmitt|title=Francis O. Schmitt, pioneer in molecular biology and neuroscience, dies at 91|date=1995-10-04|publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]|work=MIT News|accessdate=2017-06-19}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* May – [[J. C. R. Licklider]] of [[BBN Technologies|BBN]] co-presents a paper on "[http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1470000/1460847/p113-licklider.pdf?ip=163.1.79.5&id=1460847&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&key=C2716FEBFA981EF1FFE496A39B822B3BD58A7F987B06222E&CFID=409994289&CFTOKEN=90361706&__acm__=1392301732_4da5b392c238b1e80c25078e83d802db On-Line Man-Computer Communication]".
* August – [[J. C. R. Licklider]] begins to refer to the [[Intergalactic Computer Network]], effectively conceptualizing what will become the [[Internet]].
* September 19 – The first [[ICT 1301]] business mainframe sold, "Flossie", is installed at [[Senate House (University of London)]]. It will still be operable 50 years later.<ref>{{cite web|title=The ICT 1301 Resurrection Project|url=http://ict1301.co.uk/1301ccsx.htm|accessdate=2012-09-29}}</ref>
* October – [[J. C. R. Licklider]] becomes the first head of the computer research program at the [[United States Department of Defense]]'s [[DARPA|ARPA]], which he names the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO).
* November 3 – The earliest recorded use of the term "[[personal computer]]" features in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in a story about [[John Mauchly]]'s speech the day before to the [[American Institute of Industrial Engineers]]. Mauchly, "inventor of some of the original room-size computers", says that "in a decade or so" everyone would have their own computer with "exchangeable wafer-thin data storage files to provide inexhaustible memories and answer most problems". He is quoted as saying, "There is no reason to suppose the average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer."<ref>{{cite news|title=Pocket Computer May Replace Shopping List|work=The New York Times|date=1962-11-03}}</ref>
* December 7 – The [[Atlas (computer)|Atlas]] supercomputer, the most powerful in the world at this date, is dedicated at the [[University of Manchester]] in England. It is the first system designed for [[multiprogramming]], and will be in use for the next decade.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Atlas|title=Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology|first=Edwin D.|last=Reilly|publisher=Greenwood Publishing|year=2003|page=20}}</ref>
* December 28 – Mauchly is again reported as saying he "envisions a time when everyone will carry his own personal computer".<ref>{{cite news|date=1962-12-28|title=Computers for All|work=Hillsboro (Ohio) Press-Gazette|url=http://www.firstmention.com/pc/|accessdate=2012-01-10|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131213095753/http://www.firstmention.com/pc/|archive-date=2013-12-13|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
* At [[MIT]], [[Ivan Sutherland]] uses the [[TX-2]] computer to write Sketchpad, the origin of graphical programs used for [[computer-aided design]].
* [[Roger Tomlinson]] leads development of the [[Canada Geographic Information System]], the world's first [[geographic information system]] (GIS).
* [[Simula|Simula I]], the [[Object-oriented programming#History|first object-oriented programming language]], developed at the [[Norwegian Computing Center]] in [[Oslo]] by [[Ole-Johan Dahl]] and [[Kristen Nygaard]], is released.<ref>Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl. 1978. The development of the SIMULA languages. History of programming languages. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 439–480. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/800025.1198392</ref>

==Ecology==
* June – [[Rachel Carson]]'s ''[[Silent Spring]]'' begins serialization in ''[[The New Yorker]]''; it is released as a book on September 27.

==History of science==
* [[Thomas Kuhn]]'s ''[[The Structure of Scientific Revolutions]]'' is published in the [[United States]].

==Medicine==
* November – English orthopedic surgeon [[John Charnley]] makes the first successful whole [[hip replacement]] operation using a high molecular weight polyethylene (HMWP) socket, at [[Wrightington Hospital]], [[Wigan]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Waugh|first=William|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=London|year=1990|title=John Charnley: The Man and the Hip|isbn=978-3-540-19587-0|pages=122–4}}</ref>
* [[James W. Black]] synthesises [[propranolol]], the first [[beta blocker]] (used for regulation of [[angina pectoris]]), which becomes the world's best-selling drug.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Stapleton|first=Melanie P.|year=1997|title=Sir James Black and Propranolol|journal=Texas Heart Institute Journal|volume=24|issue=4|pages=336–342|pmc=325477|pmid=9456487}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|year=2005|url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/83/8325/8325tagamet.html|title="anTAGonist" and "ciMETidine"|publisher=[[American Chemical Society]]|accessdate=2005-12-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/7507080/Sir-James-Black-OM.html|title=Sir James Black, OM|date=23 March 2010|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|location=London|accessdate=2011-08-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/world/led-the-way-in-heart-drug-find-20100324-qwo8.html|title=Led the way in heart drug find|date=25 March 2010|work=[[The Age]]|publisher=[[Fairfax Digital]]|accessdate=2010-03-25|location=Melbourne}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Murray]] performs the first permanent cadaveric [[kidney transplantation]].<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|s2cid=11058683 }}</ref>
* [[Nodding disease]] is first documented, in southern [[Tanzania]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=African outbreak stumps experts|last=Wadman|first=Meredith|date=2011-07-13|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=475|issue=7355|pages=148–149|doi=10.1038/475148a|pmid=21753824|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Wade-Dahl-Till valve]], a [[cerebral shunt]], is developed by hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, author [[Roald Dahl]] and neurosurgeon Kenneth Till.

==Physics==
* The [[muon]] [[neutrino]] is discovered by [[Leon M. Lederman]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/science/leon-lederman-died-particle-accelerators.html|title=Leon Lederman, 96, Explorer (and Explainer) of the Subatomic World, Dies|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=2018-10-03|last1=Johnson|first1=George}}</ref>

==Psychology==
* [[Stanley Schachter]] and [[Jerome E. Singer]] propose their [[two-factor theory of emotion]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schachter|first1=S.|last2=Singer|first2=J.|year=1962|title=Cognitive, Social, and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State|journal=[[Psychological Review]]|volume=69|issue=5|pages=379–399|doi=10.1037/h0046234|pmid=14497895}}</ref>

==Technology==
* October – The first practical visible-spectrum (red) [[light-emitting diode]] is developed by [[Nick Holonyak]], Jr., while working at the [[General Electric Company]] in [[Syracuse, New York]].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Nick|last1=Holonyak|first2=S. F.|last2=Bevacqua|title=Coherent (Visible) Light Emission from Ga(As<sub>1−x</sub>P<sub>x</sub>) Junctions|journal=[[Applied Physics Letters]]|date=1962-12-01|volume=1|issue=4|pages=82–3|url=http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v1/i4/p82_s1|doi=10.1063/1.1753706|bibcode=1962ApPhL...1...82H|access-date=2012-10-10|archive-date=2013-02-23|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130223084736/http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v1/i4/p82_s1|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=LED at 50: An illuminating history by the light's inventor|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19886534|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=2012-10-10|accessdate=2012-10-10|work=BBC News}}</ref>
* The [[New Austrian Tunnelling method]] is so named.<ref>Golser, Johann. ''The New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM): Theoretical Background & Practical Experiences''. 2nd [[Shotcrete]] conference, Easton (USA), 4–8 October 1976.</ref>

==Awards==
* [[Fields Medal|Fields Prize in Mathematics]]: [[Lars Hörmander]] and [[John Milnor]]
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Lev Davidovich Landau]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Max Ferdinand Perutz]], [[John Cowdery Kendrew]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Francis Harry Compton Crick]], [[James Dewey Watson]], [[Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins]]<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 |access-date=19 January 2021}}</ref>
** [[Nobel Peace Prize|Peace]] – [[Linus Pauling]]
* [[Maxwell Medal and Prize]] of the [[Institute of Physics]] (first award): [[Abdus Salam]]

==Births==
* April 27 – [[Edvard Moser]], [[Norwegians|Norwegian]] [[neuroscientist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* April – [[Sarah Gilbert]], [[English people|English]] [[vaccinologist]].
* May 17 – [[Ferenc Krausz]], [[Hungary|Hungarian]]-born [[Attosecond physics|attosecond physicist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* June 18 – [[Lisa Randall]], [[Americans|American]] [[theoretical physicist]].
* June 29 – [[George D. Zamka]], American [[astronaut]].
* September 20 – [[Jim Al-Khalili]], [[Iraq]]i-born [[British people|British]] theoretical physicist and [[Science communication|science communicator]].
* October 6 – [[David Baker (biochemist)|David Baker]], American biochemist and computational biologist, recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* [[Michele Dougherty]], South African-born space physicist.

==Deaths==
* February 19 – [[Georgios Papanikolaou]] (born [[1883 in science|1883]]), [[Greek American]] [[inventor]] of the [[Pap smear]].
* March 15 – [[Arthur Compton]] (born [[1892 in science|1892]]), [[Americans|American]] [[physicist]], recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* March 19 – [[Samuel Cate Prescott]] (born [[1872 in science|1872]]), American [[Food science|food scientist]] and [[microbiologist]].
* March 24 – [[Auguste Piccard]] (born [[1884 in science|1884]]), [[Swiss people|Swiss]] physicist and [[explorer]].
* May 13 – [[Henry Trendley Dean]] (born [[1893 in science|1893]]), American dental researcher.
* July 28 – [[Natan Yavlinsky]] (born [[1912 in science|1912]]), [[Russians|Russian]] [[nuclear physicist]], in aviation accident.
* July 29 – [[Ronald Fisher]] (born [[1890 in science|1890]]), [[English people|English]]-born [[statistician]] and [[geneticist]].
* November 5 – [[Paul Lester Errington]] (born [[1902 in science|1902]]), American conservationist.
* November 18 – [[Niels Bohr]] (born [[1885 in science|1885]]), [[Danes|Danish]] [[physicist]].
* December 20 – [[Emil Artin]] (born [[1898 in science|1898]]), [[Austria]]n-born [[mathematician]].
* December 24 – [[Wilhelm Ackermann]] (born [[1896 in science|1896]]), [[German people|German]] [[mathematician]].

==References==
{{reflist|33em}}

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[[Category:1962 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1960s in science]]