1918 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1918 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
- Kiyotsugu HirayamaKiyotsugu Hirayamawas a Japanese astronomer, best known for his discovery that many asteroid orbits were more similar to one another than chance would allow, leading to the concept of asteroid families, now called "Hirayama families" in his honour....
identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama familiesHirayama familiesA Hirayama family of asteroids is a group of minor planets that share similar orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination...
. - Harlow ShapleyHarlow ShapleyHarlow Shapley was an American astronomer.-Career:He was born on a farm in Nashville, Missouri, and dropped out of school with only the equivalent of a fifth-grade education...
demonstrates that globular clusterGlobular clusterA globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers. The name of this category of star cluster is...
s are arranged in a spheroid or halo whose center is not the Earth, but the center of the galaxyGalaxyA galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
. - Max WolfMax WolfMaximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography...
discovers the starStarA star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
Wolf 359. - Heber Curtis discovers a relativistic jetRelativistic jetRelativistic jets are extremely powerful jets of plasma which emerge from presumed massive objects at the centers of some active galaxies, notably radio galaxies and quasars. Their lengths can reach several thousand or even hundreds of thousands of light years...
of matter emerging from Elliptical Galaxy M87.
Biology
- R.A. FisherRonald FisherSir Ronald Aylmer Fisher FRS was an English statistician, evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and geneticist. Among other things, Fisher is well known for his contributions to statistics by creating Fisher's exact test and Fisher's equation...
puts forward a geneticGeneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
model that shows that continuous variation could be the result of Mendelian inheritanceMendelian inheritanceMendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...
in his paper "The Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian InheritanceThe Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian InheritanceThe Correlation Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance is a scientific paper by R.A. Fisher which was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1918,...
". - J. Henri FabreJean Henri FabreJean-Henri Casimir Fabre was a French entomologist and author.-Life:Fabre was born in Saint-Léons in Aveyron, France....
's The Sacred Beetle, and others published in EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. - Jacques LoebJacques LoebJacques Loeb was a German-born American physiologist and biologist.-Biography:...
's Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct published in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Cryptography
- February 23 - Arthur ScherbiusArthur ScherbiusArthur Scherbius was a German electrical engineer who patented an invention for a mechanical cipher machine, later sold as the Enigma machine.Scherbius was born in Frankfurt am Main and his father was a small businessman...
applies to patentPatentA patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
the Enigma machineEnigma machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
. - Edward Hugh Hebern patents the Hebern rotor machineHebern rotor machineThe Hebern Rotor Machine was an electro-mechanical encryption machine built by combining the mechanical parts of a standard typewriter with the electrical parts of an electric typewriter, connecting the two through a scrambler...
.
Mathematics
- Felix HausdorffFelix HausdorffFelix Hausdorff was a Jewish German mathematician who is considered to be one of the founders of modern topology and who contributed significantly to set theory, descriptive set theory, measure theory, function theory, and functional analysis.-Life:Hausdorff studied at the University of Leipzig,...
introduces the concept of the fractional Hausdorff dimensionHausdorff dimensionthumb|450px|Estimating the Hausdorff dimension of the coast of Great BritainIn mathematics, the Hausdorff dimension is an extended non-negative real number associated with any metric space. The Hausdorff dimension generalizes the notion of the dimension of a real vector space...
. - Gaston JuliaGaston JuliaGaston Maurice Julia was a French mathematician who devised the formula for the Julia set. His works were popularized by French mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot; the Julia and Mandelbrot fractals are closely related....
describes the iteration of a rational functionRational functionIn mathematics, a rational function is any function which can be written as the ratio of two polynomial functions. Neither the coefficients of the polynomials nor the values taken by the function are necessarily rational.-Definitions:...
.
Physics
- Josef LenseJosef LenseJosef Lense was an Austrian physicistIn 1914 Lense got his doctorate under Samuel Oppenheim. From 1927-28 he was Professor ordinarius and from 1928-1946 Professor extraordinarius for applied mathematics at the Technical University of Munich...
and Hans ThirringHans ThirringHans Thirring was an Austrian theoretical physicist, professor, and father of the physicist Walter Thirring....
find the gravitomagnetic precession of gyroscopeGyroscopeA gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
s in the equations of general relativityGeneral relativityGeneral relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
. - Hans ReissnerHans ReissnerHans Jacob Reissner was a German aeronautical engineer whose avocation was mathematical physics. During World War I he was awarded the Iron Cross second class for his pioneering work on aircraft design....
and Gunnar NordströmGunnar NordströmGunnar Nordström was a Finnish theoretical physicist best remembered for his theory of gravitation, which was an early competitor of general relativity...
solve the Einstein and Maxwell field equations for charged spherically-symmetric non-rotating systems. - Friedrich KottlerFriedrich KottlerFriedrich Kottler was an Austrian theoretical physicist. He was a Privatdozent, which is a title conferred in some European university systems for someone who pursues an academic career and holds all formal qualifications to become a tenured university professor...
gets Schwarzschild solution without Einstein vacuum field equations.
Technology
- Edwin ArmstrongEdwin ArmstrongEdwin Howard Armstrong was an American electrical engineer and inventor. Armstrong was the inventor of modern frequency modulation radio....
invents the superheterodyne receiverSuperheterodyne receiverIn electronics, a superheterodyne receiver uses frequency mixing or heterodyning to convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency, which can be more conveniently processed than the original radio carrier frequency...
. - Theodore von KarmanTheodore von KarmanTheodore von Kármán was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization...
and Asbóth Oszkár build the first co-axial helicopterHelicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
. - Anton Fokker invents the interrupter gearInterrupter gearAn interrupter gear is a device used on military aircraft and warships in order to allow them to target opponents without damaging themselves....
. - A. M. Nicolson invents the radio crystal oscillator
- Charles StriteCharles StriteCharles P. Strite was an American inventor.Strite was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received U.S. patent #1,394,450 on October 18, 1921 for the pop-up bread toaster.- External links :*...
invents the pop-up toaster.
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...
- 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...
- Max Karl Ernst Ludwig PlanckMax PlanckMax Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, ForMemRS, was a German physicist who actualized the quantum physics, initiating a revolution in natural science and philosophy. He is regarded as the founder of the quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.-Life and career:Planck came... - 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,...
- Fritz HaberFritz HaberFritz Haber was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia, important for fertilizers and explosives. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid... - 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...
- not awarded
- Physics
Births
- January 27 - Antonín MrkosAntonín MrkosAntonín Mrkos was a Czech astronomer, born in Střemchoví, Czechoslovakia.- Biography :Mrkos entered the University in Brno in 1938. His studies were interrupted by the onset of World War II, and in 1945 he became a staff member at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in Slovakia...
(d. 19961996 in scienceThe year 1996 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* January 30 – Comet Hyakutake is discovered.* February 17 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft launched...
), astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
. - March 16 - Frederick ReinesFrederick ReinesFrederick Reines was an American physicist. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment, and may be the only scientist in history "so intimately associated with the discovery of an elementary particle and the...
(d. 19981998 in scienceThe year 1998 in science and technology involved many events, some of which are included below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* January–September – Cosmologists from the Supernova Cosmology Project led by Saul Perlmutter and the High-z Supernova Search Team led by Adam Riess and Brian...
), physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
. - April 4 - Joseph AshbrookJoseph AshbrookJoseph Ashbrook was an American astronomer.-Life:Ashbrook was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a doctorate from Harvard University in 1947 and taught at Yale University from 1946 to 1950, and at Harvard from 1950 to 1953...
(d. 19801980 in scienceThe year 1980 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* November 12 – Voyager program: The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn when it flies within of the planet's cloud-tops and sends the first high...
), astronomer. - April 25 - Gérard de VaucouleursGérard de Vaucouleurs-External links:* * http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/normal_galaxies.html-Other resources:...
(d. 19951995 in scienceThe year 1995 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* January 18 - In southern France near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc a network of caves are discovered that contain paintings and engravings that are 17,000 to 20,000 years old.* Wes Linster discovers the first...
), astronomer. - May 11 - Richard FeynmanRichard FeynmanRichard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
(d. 19881988 in scienceThe year 1988 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* September 29 – NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster....
), physicist, Nobel laureate. - July 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse (d. 20032003 in scienceThe year 2003 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Anthropology:*March 13 – The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy.-Astronomy:...
), physicist. - August 13 - Frederick SangerFrederick SangerFrederick Sanger, OM, CH, CBE, FRS is an English biochemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, the only person to have been so. In 1958 he was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"...
, molecular biologist. - August 29 - John HerivelJohn HerivelJohn W. Herivel was a British science historian and former World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park.As a codebreaker concerned with Cryptanalysis of the Enigma, Herivel is remembered chiefly for the discovery of what was soon dubbed the Herivel tip or Herivelismus...
(d. 20112011 in scienceThe year 2011 in science and technology involves many significant events and discoveries, some of which are listed below. 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests and Chemistry by the United Nations.- January :...
), cryptanalyst and science historian. - September 27 - Martin RyleMartin RyleSir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...
(d. 19841984 in scienceThe year 1984 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L...
), astronomer. - November 10 - Ernst Otto FischerErnst Otto FischerErnst Otto Fischer was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize for pioneering work in the area of organometallic chemistry.-Early life:...
(d. 20072007 in scienceThe year 2007 in science and technology involved many significant events.-Astronomy and space exploration:* January 12 - Comet C/2006 P1 reaches perihelion and becomes visible during daylight....
), chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, Nobel laureate. - November 19 - Hendrik C. van de HulstHendrik C. van de HulstHendrik Christoffel "Henk" van de Hulst FRS was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician....
(d. 20002000 in scienceThe year 2000 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy and space exploration:* May 4 – A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus...
), astronomer. - December 25 - Tamara Mikhailovna SmirnovaTamara Mikhailovna SmirnovaTamara Mikhailovna Smirnova was a Russian astronomer.From 1966 to 1988 she was a staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Leningrad. She co-discovered the periodic comet 74P/Smirnova-Chernykh, along with Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh. She has also discovered various asteroids...
(d. 20012001 in scienceThe year 2001 in science and technology involved many events, some of which are included below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lands in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid....
), astronomer.
Deaths
- January 6 - Georg CantorGeorg CantorGeorg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor was a German mathematician, best known as the inventor of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between the members of two sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets,...
(b. 18451845 in scienceThe year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen....
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - January 26 - Ewald HeringEwald HeringKarl Ewald Konstantin Hering was a German physiologist who did much research into color vision and spatial perception...
(b. 18341834 in scienceThe year 1834 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* March - William Whewell first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review, but notes it as "not generally palatable"....
), physiologist. - January 31 - Ivan PulyuiIvan PulyuiIvan Pulyui was a Ukrainian-born physicist, inventor and patriot who has been championed as an early developer of the use of X-rays for medical imaging...
(b. 18451845 in scienceThe year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen....
), physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
. - April 20 - Karl Ferdinand BraunKarl Ferdinand BraunKarl Ferdinand Braun was a German inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of the radio and television technology: he shared with Guglielmo Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.-Biography:Braun was born in Fulda, Germany, and...
(b. 18501850 in scienceThe year 1850 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* October 17 - James Young patents a method of distilling paraffin from coal.-Mathematics:* Thomas Kirkman proposes Kirkman's schoolgirl problem.* J. J...
), physicist. - May 31 - Alexander MitscherlichAlexander MitscherlichAlexander Mitscherlich was a German chemist.His most important work was in the field of processing wood to create cellulose....
(b. 18361836 in scienceThe year 1836 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* May 15 - Francis Baily, during an eclipse of the sun, observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.-Biology:...
), chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
. - June 27 - George Mary SearleGeorge Mary SearleGeorge Mary Searle was an American astronomer and clergyman.He discovered the asteroid 55 Pandora in 1858. He also discovered six galaxies. In later life he became a member of the Paulist order and taught at the Catholic University of America.-External links:*...
(b. 18391839 in scienceThe year 1839 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* January - The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.-Biology:...
), astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
. - September 7 - Peter Ludwig Mejdell SylowPeter Ludwig Mejdell SylowPeter Ludwig Mejdell Sylow was a Norwegianmathematician, who proved foundational results in group theory. He was born and died in Christiania ....
(b. 18321832 in scienceThe year 1832 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire begins publication of Histoire générale et particulière des anomalies de l’organisation chez l’homme et les animaux, a key text on teratology.-Exploration:* April 21 -...
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - October 28 - Ulisse Dini (b. 18451845 in scienceThe year 1845 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* January 14 – Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin established and begins publishing Fortschritte der Physik and Verhandlungen....
), mathematician. - November 3 - Aleksandr LyapunovAleksandr LyapunovAleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov was a Russian mathematician, mechanician and physicist. His surname is sometimes romanized as Ljapunov, Liapunov or Ljapunow....
(b. 18571857 in scienceThe year 1857 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Rev. M. J. Berkeley publishes Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany.-Chemistry:* Robert Bunsen invents apparatus for measuring effusion....
), mathematician and physicist. - December 27 - Birt AcresBirt AcresBirt Acres was a photographer and film pioneer.Born in Richmond, Virginia to English parents, he invented the first British 35 mm moving picture camera, the first daylight loading home movie camera and projector, Birtac, was the first travelling newsreel reporter in international film history and...
(b. 18541854 in scienceThe year 1854 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* July 22 - Discovery of the asteroid 30 Urania by John Russell Hind....
), pioneer of cinematographyCinematographyCinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
.