Editing 1976 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1976|science}}
{{Science year nav|1976}}

The year '''1976 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* March – [[Faber–Jackson relation]] presented by astronomers [[Sandra M. Faber]] and [[Robert Jackson (scientist)|Robert Earl Jackson]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1976ApJ...204..668F/abstract|title=Velocity dispersions and mass-to-light ratios for elliptical galaxies|first1=S. M.|last1=Faber|first2=R. E.|last2=Jackson|journal=Astrophysical Journal|volume=204|pages=668–683|year=1976|doi=10.1086/154215 |bibcode=1976ApJ...204..668F }}</ref>
* June 18 – [[Gravity Probe A]], a satellite-based experiment to test [[Albert Einstein]]'s theory of [[general relativity]], is launched.
* July 20 –  [[Viking program]]: The ''[[Viking 1]]'' lander successfully lands on [[Mars]].
* July 31 – [[NASA]] releases the famous '[[Face on Mars]]' photograph, taken by ''[[Viking 1]]''
* August 7 – [[Viking program]]: ''[[Viking 2]]'' enters into orbit around Mars.
* August 22 – [[Luna program]]: [[Luna 24]] successfully makes an unmanned landing on the [[Moon]], the last for 37 years.
* September 3 – [[Viking program]]: The ''[[Viking 2]]'' spacecraft lands at [[Utopia Planitia]] on Mars and takes the first close-up color photographs of the planet's surface.
* September 17 – [[Space Shuttle Enterprise|Space Shuttle ''Enterprise'']] rolled out.
* ''[[Universe (1976 film)|Universe]]'', a [[public domain]] film produced by [[Lester Novros]] for [[NASA]], is released.

==Aviation==
* January 21 – [[Concorde]] begins commercial flights.
* December 8 – First flight of production [[General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon]].

==Chemistry==
* May – [[Marion M. Bradford]] publishes the [[Bradford protein assay]] method.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bradford|first=Marion|date=1976|title=A Rapid and Sensitive Method for the Quantification of Microgram Quantities of Protein Utilizing the Principle of Protein-Dye Binding|url=http://hoffman.cm.utexas.edu/courses/bradford_assay.pdf|journal=[[Analytical Biochemistry]]|volume=72|issue=1–2|pages=248–254|via=Google Scholar|doi=10.1006/abio.1976.9999|pmid=942051}}</ref>
* Oberlin, [[Morinobu Endo|Endo]] and Koyama publish evidence of the creation of [[carbon nanotube]]s using a vapor-growth technique.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Filamentous growth of carbon through benzene decomposition|url=http://www.kroto.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/1.M.ENdoJCrystalGrowth1976.pdf|doi=10.1016/0022-0248(76)90115-9|first1=A.|last1=Oberlin|first2=M.|last2=Endo|first3=T.|last3=Koyama |volume=32|issue=3|pages=335–349|journal=Journal of Crystal Growth|bibcode=1976JCrGr..32..335O|accessdate=2012-02-03 |date=March 1976}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Carbon Fibers and Carbon Nanotubes|last1=Endo|first1=Morinobu|last2=Dresselhaus|first2=M. S.|author-link2=Mildred Dresselhaus|year=2002|url=http://web.mit.edu/tinytech/Nanostructures/Spring2003/MDresselhaus/i789.pdf|accessdate=2012-02-03}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* January – The [[Cray-1]], the first commercially developed [[supercomputer]], is released by [[Seymour Cray]]'s [[Cray Research]]. Model 001 is installed at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in the United States.
* March – [[Peter Chen]]'s key paper on the [[entity–relationship model]] is published, having first been presented at a conference in September 1975.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Peter Pin-Shan|last=Chen|title=The Entity–Relationship Model &ndash; Toward A Unified View of Data|journal=[[ACM Transactions on Database Systems]]|volume=1|issue=1|date=March 1976|doi=10.1145/320434.320440|pages=9–36|citeseerx=10.1.1.523.6679|s2cid=52801746 }}</ref>
* April 1 – [[Apple Computer]] Company is formed by [[Steve Jobs]] and [[Steve Wozniak]] in California and on April 11 they launch their first computer, the [[Apple I]], for the U.S. hobbyist market.
* November 26 – Little-known company [[Microsoft]] is officially registered with the Office of the [[Secretary of State of New Mexico]].
* December – Release of [[Electric Pencil]] (originated by Michael Shrayer), the first [[word processor]] for home computers.

==Cryptography==
* November – An asymmetric-key cryptosystem is published by [[Whitfield Diffie]] and [[Martin Hellman]] who disclose the  [[Diffie–Hellman key exchange]] method of public-key agreement for [[public-key cryptography]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Diffie|first1=Whitfield|last2=Hellman|first2=Martin E.|title=New directions in cryptography|journal=IEEE Transactions on Information Theory|volume=22|issue=6|year=1976|pages=644–654|url=https://www-ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/publications/24.pdf|doi=10.1109/TIT.1976.1055638|citeseerx=10.1.1.37.9720|accessdate=2022-04-01}}</ref>

==History of science and technology==
* October 3 – Opening of the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s [[National Museum of American History|National Museum of History and Technology]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Dibner Library|url=http://library.si.edu/libraries/dibner/history|publisher=[[Smithsonian Libraries]]|location=Washington, D.C.|accessdate=2014-01-08}}</ref>
* [[Jean Gimpel]]'s ''The Medieval Machine'' is published.

==Mathematics==
* July 11 – [[Keuffel and Esser]] manufacture the last [[slide rule]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title=11th July 1976 – Last slide rule manufactured today|url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6156/Last%20slide%20rule%20manufactured%20today|work=Computing History|publisher=[[The Centre for Computing History]]|accessdate=2012-01-01}}</ref>
* [[Imre Lakatos]]' ''[[Proofs and Refutations|Proofs and Refutations: the Logic of Mathematical Discovery]]'' is published posthumously.<ref name=Crilly>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|url=https://archive.org/details/50mathematicalid0000cril|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8}}</ref>
* The [[four color theorem]] is proved by [[Kenneth Appel]] and [[Wolfgang Haken]], the first major [[theorem]] to be [[Computer-assisted proof#Theorems proved with the help of computer programs|proved using a computer]].<ref name=Crilly/>
* [[Andrei Suslin]] and [[Daniel Quillen]] independently prove the [[Quillen–Suslin theorem]] ("Serre's conjecture") about the triviality of algebraic [[vector bundle]]s on [[affine space]].

==Paleontology==
* Fossil footprints of bipedal [[hominini]] from 3.6M years BP are found at [[Laetoli]] in Tanzania by Andrew Hill when visiting [[Mary Leakey]].<ref>{{cite web|title=A Yale Tale: Fossil Footprints|url=http://peabody.yale.edu/exhibits/fossil-fragments/history/fossil-footprints|work=Fossil Footprints|publisher=[[Peabody Museum of Natural History]]|location=[[Yale University]]|year=2005|accessdate=2019-08-31|archive-date=2020-11-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107223706/https://peabody.yale.edu/exhibits/fossil-fragments/history/fossil-footprints|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Physiology, medicine and psychology==
* July 27 – Delegates attending an [[American Legion]] convention at [[The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel]] in [[Philadelphia]], US, begin falling ill with a form of [[pneumonia]]: this will eventually be recognised as the first [[outbreak]] of [[Legionnaires' disease]] and will end in the deaths of 29 attendees.
* August 26 – The [[Ebola virus]] first emerges in outbreaks of [[viral hemorrhagic fever]] in [[Yambuku]], [[Zaire]], followed by outbreaks in [[Sudan]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1136/bmj.310.6991.1344|pmid=7787519|date=May 1995|last1=Bennett|first1=D.|last2=Brown|first2=D.|title=Ebola virus|volume=310|issue=6991|pages=1344–1345|issn=0959-8138|pmc=2549737|journal=British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Ed.)}}</ref>
* October 1–December 16 – Program of mass [[vaccination]] in the United States against the [[1976 swine flu outbreak]], suspended due to public fears over side-effects.
* October 28 – British evolutionary biologist [[Richard Dawkins]]' book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' is published, introducing the term [[memetics]].
* [[Dementia with Lewy bodies]] is first described by Japanese psychiatrist and neuropathologist [[Kenji Kosaka (psychiatrist)|Kenji Kosaka]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Kosaka, K. |author2=Oyanagi, S. |author3=Matsushita, M. |author4=Hori, A. |title=Presenile dementia with Alzheimer-, Pick- and Lewy-body changes|journal=[[Acta Neuropathologica]]|volume=36|issue=3|pages=221–233|year=1976|pmid=188300|doi=10.1007/bf00685366|s2cid=162001 }}</ref>
* The term ''[[Münchausen syndrome by proxy]]'' is first coined by [[John Money]] and June Faith Werlwas.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Money|first=John|author-link = John Money|author2=Werlwas, June|title=''Folie à deux'' in the parents of psychosocial dwarfs: two cases|journal=Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law|year=1976|volume=4|issue=4|pages=351–362|pmid=1028417 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Money |first=John |author-link = John Money |title=Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy: Update |journal=Journal of Pediatric Psychology |year=1986 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=583–584 |doi=10.1093/jpepsy/11.4.583 |pmid=3559846 }}</ref>
* [[Norman F. Dixon]] publishes ''[[On the Psychology of Military Incompetence]]''.

==Technology==
* The first [[laser printer]] is introduced by [[IBM]] (the IBM 3800).

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Burton Richter]], [[Samuel C. C. Ting]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[William N. Lipscomb]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Baruch S. Blumberg]], [[Daniel Carleton Gajdusek]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Michael O. Rabin]], [[Dana Scott]]

==Births==
* July 27 – [[Demis Hassabis]], British artificial intelligence researcher.
* November 19 – [[Jack Dorsey]], American web developer.

==Deaths==
* January 19 – [[Hidetsugu Yagi]] (b. [[1886 in science|1886]]), Japanese [[electrical engineer]].
* February 1
** [[Werner Heisenberg]] (b. [[1901 in science|1901]]), German [[theoretical physicist]].
** [[George Whipple]] (b. [[1878 in science|1878]]), American [[pathologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in [[1934 in science|1934]].
* April 5 – [[Wilder Penfield]] (b. [[1891 in science|1891]]), American-Canadian [[neurosurgeon]].
* April 21 – [[Carl Benjamin Boyer]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American historian of mathematics.
* May 31 – [[Jacques Monod]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), French [[biochemist]], winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in [[1965 in science|1965]].
* August 18 – [[Shintaro Uda]] (b. 1886), Japanese electrical engineer.
* October 5 – [[Lars Onsager]] (b. [[1903 in science|1903]]), Norwegian American [[chemist]].
* September 16 – [[Bertha Lutz]] (b. [[1894 in science|1894]]), Brazilian [[herpetologist]] and women's rights campaigner.
* September 26 – [[Pál Turán]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), Hungarian [[mathematician]].
* November 5 – [[Willi Hennig]] (b. [[1913 in science|1913]]), German [[entomologist]] and pioneer of [[cladistics]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:1976 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1970s in science]]