Editing 1971 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1971|science}}
{{Science year nav|1971}}

The year '''1971 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 31 – [[Apollo program]]: Astronauts aboard [[Apollo 14]] lift off for a mission to the [[Moon]].
* February 5 – [[Apollo 14]] lands on the [[Moon]].
* February 9 – [[Apollo program]]: [[Apollo 14]] returns to [[Earth]] after the third crewed [[Moon]] landing.
* May 19 – [[Mars probe program]]: [[Mars 2]] is launched by the [[Soviet Union]].
* May 30 – [[Mariner program]]: [[Mariner 9]] is launched toward [[Mars]].
* June 30 – The crew of the [[Soyuz 11]] spacecraft are killed when their air supply leaks out through a faulty valve during re-entry preparations, the only human deaths to occur outside Earth's atmosphere.
* July 26 – [[Apollo program]]: Launch of [[Apollo 15]].  On July 31 the Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a [[lunar rover]] a day after landing on the Moon's surface.
* November 13 – [[Mariner program]]: [[Mariner 9]] enters [[Mars]] orbit.

==Biology==
* July – Francis G. Howarth discovers communities of specialized [[thermophile]] cave animals living in lava tubes at [[Hawaii Volcanoes National Park]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Cavernicoles in Lava Tubes on the Island of Hawaii|first=Francis G.|last=Howarth|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=175|issue=4019|date=1972-01-21|pages=325–326|jstor=1733505|doi=10.1126/science.175.4019.325|pmid=17814543|bibcode=1972Sci...175..325H|s2cid=36219772 }}</ref> 
* [[C. A. W. Jeekel]] publishes ''Nomenclator Generum et Familiarum Diplopodorum''.
* [[John O'Keefe (neuroscientist)|John O'Keefe]] discovers [[place cell]]s in the mammalian brain.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=O'Keefe|first1=John|last2=Dostrovsky|first2=Jonathan|year=1971|title=The hippocampus as a spatial map: preliminary evidence from unit activity in the freely-moving rat|journal=[[Brain Research]]|volume=34|issue=1|pages=171–175|doi=10.1016/0006-8993(71)90358-1|pmid=5124915}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Binder|first=Marc D|title=Encyclopedia of Neuroscience|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopedianeur00bind|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=Springer|isbn= 978-3-540-23735-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopedianeur00bind/page/n3228 3166]}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* July 4 – [[Michael S. Hart]] posts the first [[e-book]], a copy of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], on the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]'s [[mainframe computer]], the origin of [[Project Gutenberg]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/about/background/history_and_philosophy.html|publisher=Project Gutenberg|title=The History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg|first=Michael|last=Hart|date=August 1992|access-date=2011-10-05}}.</ref>
* November 3 – The ''[[Unix]] Programmer's Manual'' is published.
* November 15 – [[Intel]] release the world's first [[microprocessor]], the [[Intel 4004|4004]].
* November/December – [[Computer Space]] is released, the first [[arcade video game]].
* [[Ray Tomlinson]] sends the first [[ARPAnet]] [[e-mail]] between host computers, at [[BBN Technologies|BBN]], [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], with the first use of the [[@ sign]] in an address.<ref>{{cite web|first=Ray |last=Tomlinson |title=The First Network Email |url=http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |access-date=2011-10-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506003539/http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |archive-date=2006-05-06 }}</ref>
* [[Kenbak-1]] goes on sale, considered to be the world's first [[personal computer]] by the [[Computer History Museum]] and the [[American Computer Museum]].
* The earliest [[floppy disk]]s, 8 inches in diameter, become commercially available as components of products shipped by [[IBM]], their inventor.

==Conservation==
* February 2 – The international [[Ramsar Convention]] for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in [[Ramsar, Mazandaran]], Iran.

==Earth sciences==
* February 9 – The [[1971 San Fernando earthquake|San Fernando (Sylmar) earthquake]] occurs in southern California with a magnitude of 6.6 and a perceived intensity of XI (extreme) on the [[Modified Mercalli intensity scale]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Stephen Cook]]  introduces the concept of [[NP-completeness]] in [[computational complexity theory]] at the 3rd Annual [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[Symposium on Theory of Computing]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Stephen|year=1971|chapter=The complexity of theorem proving procedures|chapter-url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&id=805047|title=Proceedings of the Third Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing|pages=151–158|doi=10.1145/800157.805047 |isbn=9781450374644 |s2cid=7573663 }}</ref>
* [[Daniel Quillen]] publishes a proof of the [[Adams conjecture]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Quillen|first=Daniel|title=The Adams Conjecture|doi=10.1016/0040-9383(71)90018-8|mr=0279804|year=1971|journal=[[Topology (journal)|Topology]]|issn=0040-9383|volume=10|pages=67–80|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Steven Takiff]] introduces [[Takiff algebra]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|author-link=Steven Takiff|last1=Takiff|first1=S. J.|title=Rings of invariant polynomials for a class of Lie algebras|jstor=1995803|doi=10.2307/1995803|mr=0281839|year=1971|journal=[[Transactions of the American Mathematical Society]]|issn=0002-9947|volume=160|pages=249–262|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* The [[Quine–Putnam indispensability argument]] is first presented explicitly, by [[Hilary Putnam]] in his book ''Philosophy of Logic''.

==Medicine==
* October 1 – [[Godfrey Hounsfield]]'s invention, [[X-ray computed tomography]], is first used on a patient with a cerebral [[cyst]] at [[Atkinson Morley Hospital]] in [[Wimbledon, London]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Beckmann|first=E. C.|title=CT scanning: the early days|doi=10.1259/bjr/29444122|journal=British Journal of Radiology|volume=79|issue=937|pages=5–8|year=2006|pmid=16421398}}</ref>
* Boston Women's Health Book Collective publishes ''[[Our Bodies, Ourselves]]'' in the U.S.
* E. G. L. Bywaters characterises [[adult-onset Still's disease]], a rare form of inflammatory [[arthritis]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bywaters|first=E. G. L.|title=Still's disease in the adult|journal=[[Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases]]|volume=30|issue=2|pages=121–33|date=March 1971|pmid=5315135|pmc=1005739|doi=10.1136/ard.30.2.121|url=}}</ref>
* [[Smallpox]] is eradicated from the [[Americas]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10798%3Aamericas-free-of-rubella&catid=740%3Anews-press-releases&Itemid=1926&lang=en|title=Americas region is declared the world's first to eliminate rubella|publisher=WHO|date=2015-04-30|access-date=2015-04-30|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518102827/http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10798%3Aamericas-free-of-rubella&catid=740%3Anews-press-releases&Itemid=1926&lang=en|archive-date=2015-05-18}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* August 3 – The [[Fighting Dinosaurs]], a fossil specimen featuring a ''[[Velociraptor]]'' and a ''[[Protoceratops]]'' in combat, is first located in the [[Late Cretaceous]] [[Djadochta Formation]] of Mongolia by a Polish-Mongolian team.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kielan-Jaworowska|first1=Z.|last2=Barsbold|first2=R.|date=1972|title=Narrative of the Polish-Mongolian Palaeontological Expeditions, 1967-1971|journal=Palaeontologia Polonica|volume=27|pages=1−12|url=http://www.palaeontologia.pan.pl/Archive/1972-27_5-13_1-2.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520234553/http://www.palaeontologia.pan.pl/Archive/1972-27_5-13_1-2.pdf|archive-date=2024-05-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Physics==
* [[Roger Penrose]] proposes the [[Penrose process]].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=R.|last1=Penrose|first2=R. M.|last2=Floyd|title=Extraction of Rotational Energy from a Black Hole|journal=Nature Physical Science|volume=229|issue=6|page=177|year=1971|doi=10.1038/physci229177a0|bibcode=1971NPhS..229..177P}}</ref>

==Psychology==
* August 14–20 – [[Stanford prison experiment]].
* [[Konrad Lorenz]] publishes ''Studies in Animal and Human Behavior, Volume II''.

==Technology==
* [[Richard H. Frenkiel]], [[Joel S. Engel]] and [[Philip T. Porter]] of [[Bell Labs]] in the United States set out the parameters for a practical [[cellular telephone]] network.
* [[J. J. Stiffler]] publishes his book ''Theory of Synchronous Communications'' and edits a special issue of ''IEEE Transactions on Communication Technology'' on [[error correction code]]s.

==Institutions==
* [[Paris Descartes University]] begins to function in continuation of the medical department of the [[University of Paris]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Dennis Gabor]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Gerhard Herzberg]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Earl W Sutherland, Jr]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]]

==Births==
* May 29 – [[Howard Gobioff]] (d. [[2008 in science|2008]]), [[Americans|American]] computer scientist.
* June 28 – [[Elon Musk]], South African-born Canadian-American entrepreneur, engineer, inventor and investor.
* July 4 – Sivakumar Veerasamy, [[Indian people|Indian]] [[plant geneticist]].
* July 21 – [[Sara Seager]], Canadian-American [[astrophysicist]].
* August 2 – [[Ruth Lawrence]], [[England|English]]-born [[mathematician]].

==Deaths==
* January 23 – [[Fritz Feigl]] (b. [[1891 in science|1891]]), Austrian-born Brazilian  chemist
* January 25 – [[Donald Winnicott]] (b. [[1896 in science|1896]]), English [[child psychiatrist]].
* February 16 – [[Heinrich Willi]] (b. [[1900 in science|1900]]), [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[pediatrician]].
* February 25 – [[Theodor Svedberg]] (b. [[1884 in science|1884]]), Swedish chemist, [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize]] laureate 
* March 11 – [[Philo T. Farnsworth]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American [[television]] pioneer.
* April 1 – Dame [[Kathleen Lonsdale]] (b. [[1903 in science|1903]]), [[Ireland|Irish]]-born [[X-ray crystallography|crystallographer]].
* April 6 – [[Margaret Newton]] (b. [[1887 in science|1887]]), [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[plant pathologist]].
* April 12 – [[Igor Tamm]] (b. [[1895 in science|1895]]), Russian physicist, [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize]] laureate
* June 6 – [[Edward Andrade]] (b. [[1887 in science|1887]]), [[English people|English]] physicist.
* June 15 
** [[Hillel Oppenheimer]] (b. [[1899 in science|1899]]), German-born Israeli botanist.
** [[Wendell Meredith Stanley]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), American chemist, [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Nobel Prize]] laureate.
* June 30 – [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[cosmonaut]]s
** [[Georgy Dobrovolsky]] (b. [[1928 in science|1928]])
** [[Vladislav Volkov]] (b. [[1935 in science|1935]])
** [[Viktor Patsayev]] (b. [[1933 in science|1933]])
* September 15 – [[Benno Mengele]] (b. [[1898 in science|1898]]), Austrian electrical engineer

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1970s in science]]