1957 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1957 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 and space exploration
- October 4 - Launch of Sputnik 1Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
, the first artificial satellite. - November 3 - Launch of Sputnik 2Sputnik 2Sputnik 2 , or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 ), was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...
, with a dog called LaikaLaikaLaika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...
on board, the first animal sent into orbit. There is no technology available to return it to earth. - December 6 - United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attempts launch of Vanguard TV3Vanguard TV3Vanguard TV3 was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was a small satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit...
which fails after just two seconds in the air. - Project OrionNuclear pulse propulsionNuclear pulse propulsion is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust. It was first developed as Project Orion by DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947...
begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions. - Wilhelm GlieseWilhelm GlieseWilhelm Gliese was a German astronomer who specialized in the study and cataloging of nearby stars.-Life:Gliese was born in Goldberg, now in Polish Silesia, the son of judge Wilhelm Gliese. He worked at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, first in Berlin and then in Heidelberg...
publishes the first Gliese Catalogue of Nearby StarsGliese Catalogue of Nearby StarsThe Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars is a frequently referenced, modern star catalogue of stars located within 25 parsecs of the Earth.-First edition and supplements:...
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Computer science
- April - IBMIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
delivers the first compilerCompilerA compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
for the FORTRANFortranFortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
scientific programming languageProgramming languageA programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work. - Robert C. PrimRobert C. PrimRobert Clay Prim is an American mathematician and computer scientist.In 1941, Prim received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University. Later in 1949, he received his Ph.D. in Mathematics there also...
independently rediscovers Prim's algorithmPrim's algorithmIn computer science, Prim's algorithm is a greedy algorithm that finds a minimum spanning tree for a connected weighted undirected graph. This means it finds a subset of the edges that forms a tree that includes every vertex, where the total weight of all the edges in the tree is minimized...
. It was first discovered in 19301930 in scienceThe year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 18 - Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.* Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.-Atmospheric chemistry:...
by Vojtěch JarníkVojtech JarníkVojtěch Jarník was a Czech mathematician.His main area of work was in number theory and mathematical analysis; he proved a number of results on lattice point problems. He also developed the graph theory algorithm known as Prim's algorithm....
and independently rediscovered again by Edsger DijkstraEdsger DijkstraEdsger Wybe Dijkstra ; ) was a Dutch computer scientist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing programming languages, and was the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin from 1984 until 2000.Shortly before his...
in 19591959 in scienceThe year 1959 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* August 7 - The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida....
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Medicine
- June 27 - A report by the Medical Research Council (UK)Medical Research Council (UK)The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
reveals evidence to support a link between tobacco smokingTobacco smokingTobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
and lung cancerLung cancerLung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. - October 1 - The drug ThalidomideThalidomideThalidomide was introduced as a sedative drug in the late 1950s that was typically used to cure morning sickness. In 1961, it was withdrawn due to teratogenicity and neuropathy. There is now a growing clinical interest in thalidomide, and it is introduced as an immunomodulatory agent used...
is launched as a sedativeSedativeA sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....
by Grünenthal GmbH.
Physics
- BCS theoryBCS theoryBCS theory — proposed by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer in 1957 — is the first microscopic theory of superconductivity since its discovery in 1911. The theory describes superconductivity as a microscopic effect caused by a "condensation" of pairs of electrons into a boson-like state...
of superconductivitySuperconductivitySuperconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
developed by John BardeenJohn BardeenJohn Bardeen was an American physicist and electrical engineer, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Neil Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for a...
, Leon CooperLeon CooperLeon N Cooper is an American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate, who with John Bardeen and John Robert Schrieffer, developed the BCS theory of superconductivity...
, and Robert Schrieffer. - B²FHB²FHThe B2FH paper, named after the initials of Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle, is a landmark paper of stellar physics published in Reviews of Modern Physics in 1957...
, an astrophysics paper by the British astronomers Geoffrey BurbidgeGeoffrey BurbidgeGeoffrey Ronald Burbidge FRS was an English astronomy professor, most recently at the University of California, San Diego. He was married to astrophysicist Dr. Margaret Burbidge.-Education:...
, Margaret BurbidgeMargaret BurbidgeEleanor Margaret Burbidge, née Peachey, FRS is a British-born American astrophysicist, noted for original research and holding many administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory....
and Fred HoyleFred HoyleSir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally...
and the American astronomer William FowlerWilliam Alfred FowlerWilliam Alfred "Willy" Fowler was an American astrophysicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983. He should not be confused with the British astronomer Alfred Fowler....
, describes the synnthesis of the lightest elements through nuclear processes in starsStellar nucleosynthesisStellar nucleosynthesis is the collective term for the nuclear reactions taking place in stars to build the nuclei of the elements heavier than hydrogen. Some small quantity of these reactions also occur on the stellar surface under various circumstances...
. - University of LiverpoolUniversity of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
cyclotronCyclotronIn technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
produces violation of charge conjugation symmetry. - August - ZETA fusion reactor begins operation at the Atomic Energy Research EstablishmentAtomic Energy Research EstablishmentThe Atomic Energy Research Establishment near Harwell, Oxfordshire, was the main centre for atomic energy research and development in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1990s.-Founding:...
, Harwell, OxfordshireHarwell, OxfordshireHarwell is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse west of Didcot. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-Amenities:...
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Psychology
- Harry HarlowHarry HarlowHarry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development...
begins maternal-separation and social isolationSocial isolationSocial isolation refers to a lack of contact with society for members of social species. There may be many causes and individuals in numerous generally social species are isolated at times, it need not be a pathological condition. In human society, in those cases where it is viewed as a pathology,...
experiments on rhesus monkeys.
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...
- Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao LeeTsung-Dao LeeTsung-Dao Lee is a Chinese born-American physicist, well known for his work on parity violation, the Lee Model, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion physics, nontopological solitons and soliton stars.... - 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,...
- Lord Alexander R Todd - 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...
- Daniel BovetDaniel BovetDaniel Bovet was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and...
- Physics
Births
- July 12 - Rick D. Husband (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:...
), AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronautAstronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
. - October 21 - Wolfgang KetterleWolfgang KetterleWolfgang Ketterle is a German physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero, and he led one of the first groups to realize Bose-Einstein condensation in these...
, German winner of the Nobel Prize in 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...
(2001). - December 29 - Bruce Beutler, American winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 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...
(2011).
Deaths
- February 8
- John von NeumannJohn von NeumannJohn von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
(b. 19031903 in scienceThe year 1903 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* December 17 - First documented, successful, controlled, powered flight of an aircraft with a petrol engine by Orville Wright in the Wright Flyer at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.* Konstantin...
), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - Walther BotheWalther BotheWalther Wilhelm Georg Bothe was a German nuclear physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 with Max Born....
(b. 18911891 in scienceThe year 1891 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* The New Zealand government sets aside Resolution Island in Fiordland as a nature reserve....
), 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...
, Nobel Prize in 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...
19541954 in scienceThe year 1954 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs...
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- John von Neumann
- February 18 - Henry Norris RussellHenry Norris RussellHenry Norris Russell was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram . In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling.-Biography:Russell was born in 1877 in Oyster Bay, New...
(b. 18771877 in scienceThe year 1877 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* June 19 - Eadweard Muybridge successfully produces a fast-motion sequence of photographs showing a horse in movement, Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, using multiple cameras at Palo Alto, California,...
), 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...
. - May 7 - Wilhelm FilchnerWilhelm FilchnerWilhelm Filchner was a German explorer.At the age of 21, he participated in his first expedition, which led him to Russia. Two years later, he travelled alone and on horseback through the Pamir Mountains, from Osh to Murgabh to the upper Wakhan to Tashkurgan and back...
(b. 18771877 in scienceThe year 1877 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* June 19 - Eadweard Muybridge successfully produces a fast-motion sequence of photographs showing a horse in movement, Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, using multiple cameras at Palo Alto, California,...
), explorer. - July 3 - Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount CherwellFrederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount CherwellFrederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell FRS PC CH was an English physicist who was an influential scientific adviser to the British government, particularly Winston Churchill...
(b. 18861886 in scienceThe year 1886 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Medicine:* The classic descriptions of Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease are published by Jean-Martin Charcot and his pupil Pierre Marie in Paris and by Howard H...
), physicist. - August 16 - Irving LangmuirIrving LangmuirIrving Langmuir was an American chemist and physicist. His most noted publication was the famous 1919 article "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules" in which, building on Gilbert N. Lewis's cubical atom theory and Walther Kossel's chemical bonding theory, he outlined his...
(b. 18811881 in scienceThe year 1881 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* October - Charles Darwin publishes his last scientific book The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms.* L. S...
), 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...
and physicist, Nobel Prize in 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,...
19321932 in scienceThe year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System.-Biology:* Geneticist J. B. S...
. - August 21 - Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (b. 18881888 in scienceThe year 1888 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* January 3 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is first used...
), meteorologist and oceanographer. - October 26 - Gerty CoriGerty CoriGerty Theresa Cori was an American biochemist who became the third woman—and first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Cori was born in Prague...
(d. 18961896 in scienceThe year 1896 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* The prime number theorem on the distribution of primes is proved.* Charles L...
), biochemistBiochemistBiochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
, Nobel Prize in Physiology or 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...
19471947 in scienceThe year 1947 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Anthropology:* August 7 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa-wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 4300-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that...
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