Editing 1972 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1972|science}}
{{Science year nav|1972}}

The year '''1972 in science''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 5 – [[President of the United States]] [[Richard Nixon]] orders the development of a [[Space Shuttle]] program.
* February 4 – [[Mariner 9]] sends pictures from Mars.
* February 21 – The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] uncrewed [[spacecraft]] [[Luna 20]] lands on the [[Moon]].
* March 2 – Launch of [[Pioneer 10]] spacecraft.
* April 16 – [[Apollo 16]] launched.
* June 30 – The [[International Time Bureau]] adds the first [[leap second]] to [[Coordinated Universal Time]] (UTC).
* July 23 – The [[United States]] launches [[Landsat 1]], the first Earth-resources [[satellite]].
* December 7 – [[Apollo 17]] launched with three astronauts and [[Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey|five mice]],  and ''[[The Blue Marble]]'' photograph of the [[Earth]] is taken.
* December 11 – NASA astronauts [[Eugene Cernan]] and [[Harrison Schmitt]] land on the Moon and begin a three-day exploration.

==Biology==
* February &ndash; [[S. J. Singer]] and [[Garth L. Nicolson]] describe the [[fluid mosaic model]] of the functional [[cell membrane]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Singer, S. J.|author2=Nicolson, G. L.|title=The fluid mosaic model of the structure of cell membranes|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=175|issue=4023|pages=720–31|date=1972|pmid=4333397|doi=10.1126/science.175.4023.720|s2cid=83851531 }}</ref>
* September &ndash; [[Geoffrey Burnstock]] proposes the existence of a non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic ([[NANC]]) neurotransmitter, which he identifies as [[adenosine triphosphate]] (ATP), originating the term '[[purinergic signalling]]'.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Burnstock|last=G.|title=Purinergic nerves|journal=[[Pharmacological Reviews]]|volume=24|pages=509–81|year=1972|issue=3 |pmid=4404211}}</ref>
* October 1 &ndash; The first publication reporting the production of a recombinant [[DNA]] molecule, by [[Paul Berg]] and colleagues, marks the birth of modern [[molecular biology]] methodology.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Jackson | first1= David A. | last2=Symons |first2=Robert H | last3= Berg |first3= Paul | year=1972 | title = Biochemical Method for Inserting New Genetic Information into DNA of Simian Virus 40: Circular SV40 DNA Molecules Containing Lambda Phage Genes and the Galactose Operon of Escherichia coli | journal =[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]]| volume = 69 | issue=10 | pages = 2904–2909 | doi=10.1073/pnas.69.10.2904 | pmid=4342968 | pmc=389671| bibcode=1972PNAS...69.2904J | doi-access= free }}</ref>
* [[Niles Eldredge]] and [[Stephen Jay Gould]] publish their landmark paper on [[punctuated equilibrium]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Eldredge|first1=N.|last2=Gould|first2=S. J.|chapter=Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism|title=Models in Paleobiology|editor=Schopf, T. J. M.|pages=82–115|publisher=Freeman, Cooper|location=San Francisco|year=1972}}</ref>
* [[Socorro dove]]s (''Zenaida graysoni'') last seen in the wild. The species precariously survives in captivity. A reintroduction program is being prepared.

==Computer science==
* April 6 – [[Cray Research]] founded.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cray Timeline|url=http://www.cray.com/Assets/PDF/about/CrayTimeline.pdf|publisher=Cray|accessdate=2011-04-04|archive-date=2011-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110331035544/http://www.cray.com/Assets/PDF/about/CrayTimeline.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* May – [[Magnavox]] release the first home [[video game console]] which can be connected to a television set – the [[Magnavox Odyssey]], invented by [[Ralph H. Baer]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Game Industry Career Guide|last1=Moore|first1=Michael E.|last2=Novak|first2=Jeannie|year=2010|publisher=Cengage Learning|location=Delmar|isbn=978-1-4283-7647-2|page=7|quote=In 1966, Ralph H. Baer ... pitched an idea ... to create interactive games to be played on the television. Over the next two years, his team developed the first video game system—and in 1968, they demonstrated the "Brown Box," a device on which several games could be played and that used a light gun to shoot targets on the screen. After several more years of development, the system was licensed by Magnavox in 1970 and the first game console system, the Odyssey, was released in 1972 at the then high price of $100.}}</ref>
* July 12 – First [[C compiler]] released.<ref name="V2">{{cite book |first1=Ken |last1=Thompson |first2=Dennis M. |last2=Ritchie |title=UNIX Programmer's Manual, Second Edition |date=June 12, 1972 |publisher=Bell Telephone Laboratories |url=http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/unix/UnixArchive/PDP-11/Distributions/research/1972_stuff/unix_2nd_edition_manual.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006034736/http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/unix/UnixArchive/PDP-11/Distributions/research/1972_stuff/unix_2nd_edition_manual.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2016-10-06 }}</ref>
* October – The First [[International Conference on Computer Communications]] is held in [[Washington, D.C.]], and hosts the first public demonstration of [[ARPAnet]], a precursor of the [[Internet]].
* November 29 – [[Atari, Inc.|Atari]] release the production version of ''[[Pong]]'', one of the [[first video game]]s, devised by [[Nolan Bushnell]] and [[Allan Alcorn]].
* [[Karen Spärck Jones]] introduces the concept of [[inverse document frequency]] (idf) weighting in information retrieval.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Spärck Jones|first=K.|doi=10.1108/eb026526|title=A Statistical Interpretation of Term Specificity and Its Application in Retrieval|journal=Journal of Documentation|volume=28|pages=11–21|year=1972|citeseerx=10.1.1.115.8343|s2cid=2996187 }}</ref>
* [[Write-only memory (engineering)|Write-only memory]] is devised as a [[Write-only memory (joke)|joke]] in [[Signetics]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Bob|last=Pease|title=The origin of the WOM – the "Write Only Memory"|url=http://portal.national.com/rap/Story/WOMorigin.html|publisher=[[National Semiconductor]]|accessdate=2012-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110910041413/http://portal.national.com/rap/Story/WOMorigin.html|archive-date=2011-09-10|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Earth sciences==
* February 8 – First [[Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point]] (GSSP) defined at the [[Silurian]]-[[Devonian]] boundary at [[Klonk]] in the Czech Republic.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Chlupáč|first1=Ivo|last2=Hladil|first2=Jindrich|title=The global stratotype section and point of the Silurian-Devonian boundary|journal=CFS Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg|date=January 2000|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260135817|access-date=2020-12-07}}</ref>

==Ecology==
* January – ''[[A Blueprint for Survival]]'' first published as a special edition of ''[[The Ecologist]]'' magazine in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theecologist.org/theecologist/266662/about_the_ecologist.html|title=About The Ecologist|publisher=[[The Ecologist]]|accessdate=2012-02-10}}</ref>
* [[James Lovelock]] first refers to the [[Gaia hypothesis]] in print.<ref>{{cite journal|first=J. E.|last=Lovelock|title=Gaia as seen through the atmosphere|date=August 1972|journal=Atmospheric Environment|volume=6|issue=8|pages=579–580|issn=0004-6981|doi=10.1016/0004-6981(72)90076-5|bibcode=1972AtmEn...6..579L}}</ref>
* The [[Climatic Research Unit]] is founded by climatologist [[Hubert Lamb]] at the [[University of East Anglia]] in the UK.

==Mathematics==
* [[Daniel Quillen]] formulates higher [[algebraic K-theory]].
* [[Daniel Gorenstein]] announces a 16-step program for completing the [[classification of finite simple groups]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gorenstein|first=D.|title=The classification of finite simple groups. I. Simple groups and local analysis|doi=10.1090/S0273-0979-1979-14551-8|year=1979|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society |series=New Series |issn=0002-9904|volume=1|issue=1|pages=43–199|mr=513750|doi-access=free}} Appendix.</ref>
* [[Richard M. Karp]] shows that the [[Hamiltonian cycle]] problem is [[NP-complete]].

==Medicine==
* January 31 – [[Immunosuppressant|Immunosuppressive]] effect of [[ciclosporin]] discovered by a team at [[Sandoz]], [[Basel]], under [[Hartmann F. Stähelin]].
* [[Harvey J. Alter]] identifies the presence of [[hepatitis C virus]].
* [[Tu Youyou]] and collaborators obtain a pure extract of the [[antiplasmodial]] drug [[artemisinin]].
* [[Archie Cochrane]] publishes ''Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services'' in the U.K.
* [[John Yudkin]] publishes ''[[Pure, White and Deadly]]'' in the U.K., warning of the dangers of [[sucrose]] in diet.
* The [[1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak|last major epidemic of smallpox in Europe]] breaks out in [[Yugoslavia]].

==Metrology==
* 00:00:00 [[UTC]] matches 00:00:10 [[International Atomic Time|TAI]] exactly and the tick rate of UTC is changed to match TAI exactly.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Blair|editor-first=Byron E.|title=Time and Frequency: Theory and Fundamentals|url=https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/MONO/nbsmonograph140.pdf|publisher=National Bureau of Standards|year=1974|page=32}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* Kielan-Jawarowska and [[Rinchen Barsbold]] report the associated remains of a ''[[Velociraptor]]'' and ''[[Protoceratops]]'' apparently killed and preserved while fighting.

==Psychology==
* [[Daniel Kahneman]] and [[Amos Tversky]] begin to publish together on [[cognitive bias]] and [[heuristics in judgment and decision-making]].

==Technology==
* February 1 – The first scientific hand-held [[calculator]] (labeled [[Hewlett-Packard]], later designated the [[HP-35]]) is introduced, at a price of $395.00.
* July 10 – [[Jack Cover]] files {{US Patent|3803463}} for the original form of [[Taser]] [[electroshock weapon]].
* English inventor [[Peter Powell (kite)|Peter Powell]] develops a steerable dual-line [[kite]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[John Bardeen]], [[Leon Neil Cooper]], [[John Robert Schrieffer]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Christian B. Anfinsen]], [[Stanford Moore]], [[William H. Stein]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Gerald Edelman]], [[Rodney R Porter]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Edsger Dijkstra]]

==Births==
* March 31 – [[Evan Williams (Internet entrepreneur)|Evan Williams]], [[Americans|American]] [[Internet entrepreneur]].
* April 5 – [[Nima Arkani-Hamed]], Canadian-American theoretical [[physicist]].
* June 21 – [[Warren Lyford DeLano]], American [[bioinformatician]] and [[Open-source software|open source]] advocate (d. [[2009 in science|2009]]).
*''unknown date'' – [[Kathy Vivas]], Venezuelan astrophysicist<ref name=":02">{{cite news|last=Graterol|first=Javier|date=18 May 2009|title=La astronomía es una ciencia apasionante|work=El Nacional}}</ref>

==Deaths==
* February 20 – [[Maria Goeppert Mayer]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), German-American theoretical physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics. 
* May 4 – [[Edward Calvin Kendall]] (b. [[1886 in science|1886]]), American chemist, recipient of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* May 8 – [[Beatrice Helen Worsley]] (b. [[1921 in science|1921]]), Canadian [[computer scientist]].
* August 11 – [[Max Theiler]] (b. [[1899 in science|1899]]), South African-born American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* August 22 – [[Ștefan Procopiu]] (b. [[1890 in science|18990]]), Romanian physicist.
* August 25 – [[Lucien Bull]] (b. [[1876 in science|1876]]), Irish-born French pioneer in [[chronophotography]].
* October 1 – [[Louis Leakey]] (b. [[1903 in science|1903]]), British [[paleoanthropologist]].
* November 25 – [[Henri Coandă]] (b. 1886), Romanian [[aeronautical engineer]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1972 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1970s in science]]