Editing 1979 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1979|science}}
{{Science year nav|1979}}

The year '''1979 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* February 7 – [[Pluto]] enters a 20-year period inside the orbit of [[Neptune]] for the first time in 230 years.
* March 7 – The largest [[magnetar]] ([[soft gamma repeater]]) event is recorded.
* July 11 – America's first space station, ''[[Skylab]]'', is deliberately allowed to burn up on [[atmospheric entry]] over the Indian Ocean due to its decaying orbit and the lack of time to build a new spaceship to boost it up.
* September 1 – The American ''[[Pioneer 11]]'' becomes the first spacecraft to visit [[Saturn]] when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000&nbsp;km.
* December 24 &ndash; The maiden launch of [[Ariane 1]], the first rocket in the [[Ariane (rocket family)|Ariane]] launcher family.
* [[Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific]] given for the first time.

==Biology==
* [[Arthur William Baden Powell]] publishes ''New Zealand Mollusca''.

==Computer science==
* [[May 8]] - [[Radio Shack]] releases [[TRSDOS]] 2.3
* [[VisiCalc]] becomes the first [[spreadsheet#Programming issues|spreadsheet program]].
* The [[US Federal Government]] releases the initial, draft version of [[Ada (programming language)]], a strongly typed, comb-structured language with [[exception handler]]s, for embedded systems.

==Conservation==
* April 5 – First stage of [[Kakadu National Park]] declared in [[Australia]].

==Earth sciences==
* The [[RISE project]] first discovers [[hydrothermal vent]]s known as 'black smokers', on a [[mid-ocean ridge]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]].

==History of science==
* [[Robert Gwyn Macfarlane]] publishes ''Howard Florey: The Making of a Great Scientist''.

==Mathematics==
* '[[Monstrous moonshine]]': [[John Horton Conway|John Conway]] and [[Simon P. Norton]] prove there is a connection between the [[Monster group]] ''M'' and the [[j-invariant|''j''-function]] in number theory.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Monstrous Moonshine|journal=Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society|volume=11|pages=308–339|year=1979|doi=10.1112/blms/11.3.308|last1=Conway|first1=J. H.|last2=Norton|first2=S. P.|issue=3}}</ref>
* The first modern [[Sudoku]], known as ''Number Place'', appears in ''Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games'' (United States), devised by [[Howard Garns]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_09_05_05.html|title=Ed Pegg Jr.'s Math Games: Sudoku Variations|accessdate=2006-10-03|last=Pegg|first=Ed Jr.|date=2005-09-15|work=MAA Online|publisher=[[The Mathematical Association of America]]}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* August – The [[eating disorder]] ''[[Bulimia nervosa]]'' is first described and named by British psychiatrist [[Gerald Russell]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Russell|first=Gerald|title=Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa|journal=[[Psychological Medicine]]|volume=9|issue=3|pages=429–48|date=August 1979|pmid=482466|doi=10.1017/S0033291700031974|s2cid=23973384 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Palmer|first=Robert|title=Bulimia nervosa: 25 years on|journal=[[British Journal of Psychiatry]]|volume=185|issue=6|pages=447–8|date=December 2004|pmid=15572732|doi=10.1192/bjp.185.6.447|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* December 9 – The [[World Health Organization]] certifies the global eradication of [[smallpox]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Smallpox |work=WHO Factsheet |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |accessdate=2007-09-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921235036/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/ |archivedate=2007-09-21 }}</ref>
* The last naturally occurring cases of [[polio]] are reported in the United States.
* Tumor [[protein]] [[p53]] is identified by [[Lionel Crawford]], [[David Lane (oncologist)|David Lane]], [[Arnold J. Levine]] and [[Lloyd J. Old]].

==Paleontology==
* [[Dinosaur egg]]s found in the [[Two Medicine Formation]] of [[Montana]].

==Technology==
* March 1 – [[Philips]] publicly demonstrate a prototype of an [[Compact disc|optical digital audio disc]] at a press conference in [[Eindhoven]], Netherlands.
* June 12 – [[Human-powered aircraft]] [[Gossamer Albatross]], built by an [[United States|American]] team led by [[Paul MacCready]] and piloted by [[Bryan Allen (cyclist)|Bryan Allen]], makes a successful crossing of the [[English Channel]] to win the second [[Kremer prize]].
* First sale of [[Post-It Note]]s in Boise, Idaho.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Sheldon Glashow]], [[Abdus Salam]], [[Steven Weinberg]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Herbert C. Brown]], [[Georg Wittig]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Allan M. Cormack]], [[Godfrey N. Hounsfield]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Kenneth E. Iverson]]

==Births==
* June 29 – [[Artur Avila]], [[Brazil]]ian-born [[mathematician]].

==Deaths==
* January – [[Oscar H. Banker]] (b. [[1895 in science|1895]]), [[Armenian American]] inventor.
* March 11 – [[Noël Poynter]] (b. [[1908 in science|1908]]), English [[medical historian]].
* March 17 – [[Henry Aaron Hill]] (b. [[1915 in science|1915]]), [[Americans|American]] [[fluorocarbon]] chemist, first [[African American]] president of the [[American Chemical Society]].
* April 5 – [[Eugène Gabritschevsky]] (b. [[1893 in science|1893]]), [[Russia]]n [[biologist]] and [[artist]].
* May 6 – [[Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth]] (b. [[1892 in science|1892]]), [[Germans|German]] [[astronomer]].
* June 1 – [[Werner Forssmann]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), German [[physician]], recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* September 26 – Sir [[Barnes Wallis]] (b. [[1887 in science|1887]]), [[English people|English]] [[aeronautical engineer]].
* October 10 – [[Guido Fanconi]] (b. [[1892 in science|1892]]), [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[pediatrician]].
* October 12 – [[Katharine Burr Blodgett]] (b. [[1898 in science|1898]]), American physicist and chemist.
* December 7 – [[Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin]] (b. [[1900 in science|1900]]), English-born American astronomer and astrophysicist.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers|date=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387304007|location=New York}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1979 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1970s in science]]