1938 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1938 in science
and technology
involved some significant events, listed below.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy
- June 28 - A 450-ton meteoriteMeteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, PennsylvaniaChicora, PennsylvaniaChicora is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,021 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Chicora is located at ....
.
Biology
- December 22 - Marjorie Courtenay-LatimerMarjorie Courtenay-LatimerMarjorie faree Doris Courtenay-Latimer was the South African museum official who in 1938 brought to the attention of the world the existence of the coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for sixty-five million years....
discovers a CoelacanthCoelacanthCoelacanths are members of an order of fish that includes the oldest living lineage of Sarcopterygii known to date....
, formerly seen only in fossils millions of years old, in a fisherman's catch in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. - Bawden and Pirie publish the first crystal of a spherical virusVirusA virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
, Tomato bushy stunt virusTomato bushy stunt virusTomato bushy stunt virus is a tombusvirus first reported in tomatoes in 1935. Depending upon the host, TBSV causes stunting of growth, leaf mottling, and deformed or absent fruit. The virus is transmitted manually through the use of contaminated cutting tools...
.
Chemistry
- April 6 - Roy J. Plunkett of DuPontDuPontE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
accidentally discovers polytetrafluoroethylenePolytetrafluoroethylenePolytetrafluoroethylene is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that finds numerous applications. PTFE is most well known by the DuPont brand name Teflon....
(Teflon). - Lysergic acid diethylamide first synthesizedChemical synthesisIn chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions...
by Albert HofmannAlbert HofmannAlbert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...
from ergotamine.
Mathematics
- Frank BenfordFrank BenfordFrank Albert Benford, Jr., was an American electrical engineer and physicist best known for rediscovering and generalizing Benford's Law, a statistical statement about the occurrence of digits in lists of data.Benford is also known for having devised, in 1937, an instrument for measuring the...
restates the law of distribution of first digitsBenford's lawBenford's law, also called the first-digit law, states that in lists of numbers from many real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way...
.
Medicine
- Hans AspergerHans AspergerHans Asperger was an Austrian pediatrician, after whom Asperger syndrome was named. He wrote over 300 publications, mostly concerning autism in children.-Biography:...
first adopts the term autismAutismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
in its modern sense in referring to autistic psychopaths in a lecture (in GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) on child psychology.
Physics
- Herbert E. IvesHerbert E. IvesHerbert Eugene Ives was a scientist and engineer who headed the development of facsimile and television systems at AT&T in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a critic of the special theory of relativity, and attempted to disprove the theory by means of logical arguments and...
and G. R. Stilwell execute the Ives-Stilwell experimentIves-Stilwell experimentThe Ives–Stilwell experiment exploits the transverse Doppler effect . This was the first direct, quantitative confirmation of the time dilation factor. Together with the Michelson–Morley and Kennedy–Thorndike experiments, it forms one of the fundamental tests of special relativity theory...
, showing that ionIonAn ion is an atom or molecule in which the total number of electrons is not equal to the total number of protons, giving it a net positive or negative electrical charge. The name was given by physicist Michael Faraday for the substances that allow a current to pass between electrodes in a...
s radiate at frequenciesFrequencyFrequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
affected by their motion. - The Vlasov equationVlasov equationThe Vlasov equation is a differential equation describing time evolution of the distribution function of plasma consisting of charged particles with long-range interaction...
is first proposed for description of plasmaPlasma (physics)In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
by Anatoly VlasovAnatoly VlasovAnatoly Alexandrovich Vlasov was a Russian theoretical physicist prominent in the fields of statistical mechanics, kinetics, and especially in plasma physics.-Biography:...
.
Awards
- Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s- PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
- Enrico FermiEnrico FermiEnrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics... - ChemistryNobel Prize in ChemistryThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
- Richard KuhnRichard KuhnRichard Kuhn was an Austrian-German biochemist, Nobel laureate, and Nazi collaborator.-Early life:Kuhn was born in Vienna, Austria where he attended grammar school and high school. His interest in chemistry surfaced early; however he had many interests and decided late to study chemistry... - MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
- Corneille Jean François Heymans
- Physics
- Copley MedalCopley MedalThe Copley Medal is an award given by the Royal Society of London for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science, and alternates between the physical sciences and the biological sciences"...
: Niels BohrNiels BohrNiels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in... - Wollaston Medal for geologyWollaston MedalThe Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
: Maurice LugeonMaurice LugeonMaurice Lugeon was a Swiss geologist, and the pioneer of nappe tectonics. He was a pupil of Eugène Renevier. Named for Maurice Lugeon, the lugeon is a measure of transmissivity in rocks, determined by pressurized injection of water through a bore hole driven through the rock...
Deaths
- January 31 - Sir James Crichton-BrowneJames Crichton-BrowneSir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS was a leading British psychiatrist famous for studies on the relationship of mental illness to neurological damage and for the development of public health policies in relation to mental health...
, psychiatristPsychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
(b. 18401840 in scienceThe year 1840 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* William Whewell publishes the term scientist....
).