Editing 1980 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1980|science}}
{{Science year nav|1980}}

The year '''1980 in science''' and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* February 16 – A [[total solar eclipse]] is seen in North Africa and West Asia.
* March 1 – The ''[[Voyager 1]]'' probe confirms the existence of [[Janus (moon)|Janus]], a moon of [[Saturn]].
* October 3 – The main-belt asteroid [[2404 Antarctica]] is discovered by Czech astronomer [[Antonín Mrkos]].
* November 12 – [[Voyager program]]: The [[NASA]] space probe ''[[Voyager I]]'' makes its closest approach to [[Saturn]] when it flies within {{convert|77000|mi|km}} of the [[planet]]'s cloud-tops and sends the first high resolution images of the world back to scientists on [[Earth]].

==Chemistry==
* [[John B. Goodenough]], working with colleagues at the [[University of Oxford]] [[Inorganic Chemistry]] Laboratory, identifies the cathode material that enables development of the rechargeable [[lithium-ion battery]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Mizushima, K.|author2=Jones, P. C.|author3=Wiseman, P. J.|author4=Goodenough, J. B.|title=Li<sub>x</sub>CoO<sub>2</sub> (0<x≪-1): A new cathode material for batteries of high energy density|journal=Materials Research Bulletin|date=June 1980|volume=15|issue=6|pages=783–789|doi=10.1016/0025-5408(80)90012-4|s2cid=97799722 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Alan|last=Dronsfield|title=Inorganic Chemical Laboratory, Oxford/John Goodenough Landmark Award|url=http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/Newsletter/NL1101.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924132055/http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/rschg/Newsletter/NL1101.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2015-09-24|pages=25–27|journal=RSC Historical Group Newsletter|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|accessdate=2012-01-17|date=January 2011}}</ref>
* [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] formed by merger of the [[Royal Institute of Chemistry]], the [[Chemical Society]], the [[Faraday Society]] and the [[Society for Analytical Chemistry]], with headquarters in London.

==Computer science==
* May 22 – The [[arcade game]] ''[[Pac-Man]]'' is released in Japan.
* June 23 – [[Tim Berners-Lee]] begins work on [[ENQUIRE]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ref.web.cern.ch/ref/CERN/CNL/2001/001/www-history/Pr/|title=Cern Authentication|website=ref.web.CERN.ch|access-date=January 8, 2018}}</ref> the system that will lead to the creation of the [[World Wide Web]] a decade later.
* July – [[Microsoft]]'s [[Bill Gates]] agrees to create an [[operating system]] for the new [[IBM Personal Computer]]. In September, [[David Bradley (engineer)|David Bradley]] becomes one of the "original 12" engineers working on the project (under [[Philip Don Estridge|Don Estridge]]) and is responsible for the [[ROM BIOS]] code<ref>{{cite web|first=Mary|last=Bellis|title=IBM History|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/Ibm-History.htm|archive-url=http://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120427191240/http://inventors.about.com/od/computersandinternet/a/Ibm%2DHistory.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 27, 2012|publisher=About.com|accessdate=2011-11-30}}</ref> and for developing the [[Control-Alt-Delete]] command.<ref>{{cite news|title=Thank this guy for 'control-alt-delete'|first=Abe|last=Aamidor|work=[[The Indianapolis Star]]|url=http://www.gannettonline.com/e/trends/18001162.html|accessdate=2011-11-30|archive-date=2017-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910181929/http://www.gannettonline.com/e/trends/18001162.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* September – The "[[Chinese room]]" argument is introduced in a paper by [[John Searle]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Searle|first=John|title=Minds, brains, and programs|journal=[[Behavioral and Brain Sciences]]|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/minds-brains-and-programs/DC644B47A4299C637C89772FACC2706A|year=1980|volume=3|issue=3|pages=417–424|doi=10.1017/s0140525x00005756|s2cid=55303721 |accessdate=2009-05-13|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* September 30 – [[Digital Equipment Corporation]], [[Intel]] and [[Xerox]] introduce the [[DIX Ethernet|DIX]] standard for [[Ethernet]], which is the first implementation outside of Xerox and the first to support 10&nbsp;Mbit/s speeds.
* [[Atari]] release a conversion of the hit arcade game ''[[Space Invaders]]'' for the [[Atari 2600]] which popularises the home [[video game console]].
* [[Usenet]] established at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] and [[Duke University]].<ref>{{cite book|title=From Usenet to CoWebs: interacting with social information spaces|editor1=Lueg, Christopher |editor2=Fisher, Danyel |location=London|publisher=Springer|year=2003|isbn=978-1-85233-532-8}}</ref>
* [[Convolutional neural network]]s are introduced in a paper by Kunihiko Fukushima.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fukushima|first=Kunihiko|title=Neocognitron: A Self-organizing Neural Network Model for a Mechanism of Pattern Recognition Unaffected by Shift in Position|journal=Biological Cybernetics|year=1980|volume=36|issue=4|pages=193–202|url=http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr08/cos598B/Readings/Fukushima1980.pdf|accessdate=2013-12-10|doi=10.1007/bf00344251|pmid=7370364|s2cid=206775608}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ciresan|first1=Dan|first2=Ueli|last2=Meier|first3=Jürgen|last3=Schmidhuber|title=2012 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition |chapter=Multi-column deep neural networks for image classification |date=June 2012|pages=3642–3649|doi=10.1109/CVPR.2012.6248110|arxiv=1202.2745|isbn=9781467312264|oclc=812295155|publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers|location=New York|s2cid=2161592}}</ref>

==Geophysics==
* May 18 –  The [[1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens]] volcano in [[Washington (state)]] kills 57, including American volcanologist [[David A. Johnston]].
* June 6 –  [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis]] and [[Walter Alvarez]] with [[Frank Asaro]] and Helen Michels propose the [[Alvarez hypothesis]], that the [[Extinction event|mass extinction]] of the [[dinosaur]]s was caused by the [[Impact event|impact]] of a large [[asteroid]] 66 million years ago, the [[Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction|author1=Alvarez, Luis W.|author2=Alvarez, Walter|author3=Asaro, Frank|author4=Michel, Helen V.|year=1980|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=208|issue=4448|pages=1095–1108|doi=10.1126/science.208.4448.1095|pmid=17783054|bibcode=1980Sci...208.1095A|citeseerx=10.1.1.126.8496|s2cid=16017767}}</ref>
* October 10 –  The 7.1 {{M|w}} [[1980 El Asnam earthquake|El Asnam earthquake]] shakes northern [[Algeria]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of X (''Extreme''), killing 2,633–5,000.
* November 23 – The 6.9 {{M|w}} [[1980 Irpinia earthquake|Irpinia earthquake]] shakes southern Italy with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of X (''Extreme''), killing 2,483–4,900.

==History of science and technology==
* ''Voprosy istorii estestvozhaniyi i tekhniki'' ("Questions of the history of science and technology") begins publication under the auspices of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]].

==Medicine==
* May 8 – Global eradication of [[smallpox]] certified by the [[World Health Organization]].
* August 28 – First clinically useful image of a patient's internal tissues using [[magnetic resonance imaging]] (MRI) is obtained using a full-body scanner built by a team led by [[John Mallard]] at the [[University of Aberdeen]].<ref>{{cite web|work=Profiles|title=John Mallard|url=http://www.bshr.org.uk/mallard.html|date=2021-02-27|access-date=2021-02-27|archive-date=2020-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022000049/http://www.bshr.org.uk/mallard.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* December – First successful human [[heart transplantation]] to use the [[immunosuppressant]] [[cyclosporine]].<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YWXlBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA58|title=The Search for Anti-Inflammatory Drugs: Case Histories from Concept to Clinic|last1=Borel|first1=J. F.|authorlink1=Jean-Francois Borel|last2=Kis|first2=Z. L.|last3=Beveridge|first3=T.|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4615-9848-0|editor-last=Merluzzi|editor-first=Vincent J.|pages=58|chapter=2: The History of the Discovery and Development of Cyclosporine|editor-last2=Adams|editor-first2=Julian}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.ishlt.org/ishlt/media/ISHLT/Content%20Documents/2017Jun_Links.pdf|title=Recapitulation of the Opening Plenary Session: San Diego 2017|last=Valentine|first=Vincent|date=June 2017|journal=Links|publisher=ISHLT|accessdate=2018-07-28}}</ref>
* Global campaign to eradicate [[Dracunculiasis]] (Guinea worm disease) begins at the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]].
* The much-enlarged third edition of the [[American Psychiatric Association]]'s ''[[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]'' (DSM-III), produced under the control of [[Robert Spitzer (psychiatrist)|Robert Spitzer]], is published.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/jhbs.20103|last1=Mayes|first1=R.|last2=Horwitz|first2=A. V.|year=2005|title=DSM-III and the revolution in the classification of mental illness|journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences|pmid=15981242|volume=41|issue=3|pages=249–67}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|first1= M.|year=1993|title=DSM-III and the transformation of American psychiatry: a history|journal=[[American Journal of Psychiatry]]|volume=150|pages=399–410|pmid=8434655|issue=3|doi=10.1176/ajp.150.3.399}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Spiegel|first=Alix|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/03/050103fa_fact|title=The Dictionary of Disorder: How one man revolutionized psychiatry|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=2005-01-03|pages=56–63|accessdate=2011-06-04|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606141855/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/03/050103fa_fact| archivedate=6 June 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
* First commercial [[Magnetic resonance imaging|MRI]] [[Whole body imaging|whole body scanner]] manufactured by [[Oxford Instruments]] for installation at [[Hammersmith Hospital]], [[London]].<ref>{{cite web|title=MRI Scanner (1980)|url=http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/mri.html|work=Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme|publisher=Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board|date=2011-06-02|accessdate=2012-01-06}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* First four (ankle) bones of "[[Little Foot]]" (Stw 573), a nearly complete  young female [[Australopithecus]] fossil skeleton capable of walking upright are found in the cave system of [[Sterkfontein]], [[South Africa]], eventually dated at around 3.67 million years BP but not identified at this time.<ref>{{cite news|last=Geggel|first=Laura|title='Miracle' Excavation of 'Little Foot' Skeleton Reveals Mysterious Human Relative|url=https://www.livescience.com/64275-little-foot-hominin-excavated.html|date=2018-12-11|work=[[Live Science]]|access-date=2018-12-11}}</ref>

== Physics ==
* German physician [[Klaus von Klitzing]], working at the high magnetic field laboratory in Grenoble with silicon-based samples developed by Michael Pepper and Gerhard Dorda, makes the unexpected discovery that the Hall conductivity is exactly quantized, the [[Quantum Hall effect]].

==Technology==
* English watchmaker [[George Daniels (watchmaker)|George Daniels]] [[patent]]s the [[coaxial escapement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Dr George Daniels CBE|url=https://www.danielslondon.com/dr-george-daniels-cbe/|publisher=Daniels London|accessdate=2025-03-28}}</ref>

==Zoology==
* The [[Cooloola monster]], an [[orthoptera]]n, is discovered in [[Queensland]], Australia.

==Other events==
* January 6 – [[Global Positioning System]] time [[Epoch (computing)|epoch]] begins at 00:00 UTC.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[James Watson Cronin]], [[Val Logsdon Fitch]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Paul Berg]], [[Walter Gilbert]], [[Frederick Sanger]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Baruj Benacerraf]], [[Jean Dausset]], [[George D. Snell]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[C. A. R. Hoare]]

==Births==
* January 31 – [[Dan Milisavljevic]], [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[astronomer]].
* November 22 – [[Shawn Fanning]], [[Americans|American]] [[computer programmer]].

==Deaths==
* January 2 – [[Alexandra Illmer Forsythe]] (b. [[1918 in science|1918]]), American computer scientist.
* January 3 – [[Joy Adamson]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), [[Austrian Silesia|Silesia]]n-born [[Kenya]]n [[wildlife conservation]]ist (murdered).
* January 8 – [[John Mauchly]] (b. [[1907 in science|1907]]), American co-inventor of the [[ENIAC]] computer.
* February 1 – [[Toshiko Yuasa]] (b. [[1909 in science|1909]]), [[Japanese people|Japanese]]-born [[nuclear physicist]].
* February 7 – [[Secondo Campini]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), [[Italian people|Italian]] [[jet engine]] pioneer.
* March 18 – [[Ludwig Guttmann]] (b. [[1899 in science|1899]]), German-born [[British people|British]] [[neurologist]] and pioneer of paralympic games.
* May 28 – [[Rolf Nevanlinna]] (b. [[1895 in science|1895]]), [[Finns|Finnish]] [[mathematician]].
* June 18 – [[Kazimierz Kuratowski]] (b. [[1896 in science|1896]]), [[Polish people|Polish]] mathematician.
* July 1 – [[C. P. Snow]] (b. [[1905 in science|1905]]), [[English people|English]] [[physicist]] and novelist.
* August 5 – [[Joachim Hämmerling]] (b. [[1901 in science|1901]]), German-born [[Danish people|Danish]] biologist.
* August 29 – [[Franco Basaglia]] (b. [[1924 in science|1924]]), [[Italians|Italian]] [[psychiatrist]].
* October 18 – [[Hans Ferdinand Mayer]] (b. 1895), [[German people|German]] physicist.
* October 21 – [[Hans Asperger]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), [[Austria]]n [[pediatrician]].
* October 31 – [[Elizebeth Smith Friedman]] (b. [[1982 in science|1892]]), [[America]]n [[cryptanalyst]].
* November 4 – [[Elsie MacGill]] (b. 1905), Canadian [[aeronautics|aeronautical]] engineer, "Queen of the Hurricanes".
* December 16 – [[Hellmuth Walter]] (b. [[1900 in science|1900]]), German-born mechanical engineer and inventor.

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:1980 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1980s in science]]