1920 in science

The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• Andrew Douglass proposes dendrochronology dating.

History of science and technology

• Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.

Medicine

• Frederick Banting and Charles Best co-discover insulin.
• Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt first describes some of the symptoms of what will become known as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.
• Hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic closely related to codeine, is first synthesized in Germany by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim.^[1]

Meteorology

• Milutin Milanković proposes that long term climatic cycles may be due to changes in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit and changes in the Earth's obliquity ("Milankovitch cycles").^[2]

Physics

• Megh Nad Saha states his ionization equation.
• Albert Einstein delivers his Leiden Lecture.
• Publication of Arthur Eddington's observation of the "bending of light" during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, confirming Einstein's theory of general relativity.^[3]
• Ernest Rutherford predicts the existence of the neutron.
• James Jeans discovers that the dynamical constants of motion determine the distribution function for a system of particles.
• Publication of Alan A. Griffith's analysis of the process of brittle fracture.^[4]

Psychology

• John B. Watson conducts the Little Albert experiment in classical conditioning.

Technology

• July 25 - The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast is made.^[5]
• September 29 - First domestic radio sets come to stores in the United States – a Westinghouse radio costs $10.
• October - Young Russian physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen first develops the electronic musical instrument which will become the Theremin.^[6]

Events

• Publication in Prague of Karel Čapek's drama R.U.R: Rossum's Universal Robots, introducing the word Robot to the world.^[7][8]

Births

• February 7 - An Wang, Chinese-born computer engineer (died 1990).
• March 11 - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• March 15 - E. Donnall Thomas, American physician, Nobel Prize laureate.
• April 6 - Edmond H. Fischer, Swiss American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• June 17 - François Jacob, French biologist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• July 10 - Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2006).
• July 25 - Rosalind Franklin, English crystallographer (died 1958).
• September 29 - Peter D. Mitchell, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1992).
• October 29 - Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate. (died 2011)
• December 6 - George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2002).

Deaths

• January 3 - Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician (born 1888).
• January 6 - Hieronymus Georg Zeuthen, Danish mathematician (born 1839).
• March 13 - Charles Lapworth, English geologist (born 1842).
• March 26 - William Chester Minor, American surgeon (born 1834).
• March 31 - Paul Bachmann, German mathematician (born 1837).
• April 8 - John Brashear, American astronomer (born 1840 in science).
• April 9 - Moritz Cantor, German historian of mathematics (born 1829).
• April 26 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (born 1887).
• June 20
  • Marie Adolphe Carnot, French chemist and mining engineer (born 1839).
  • John Grigg, New Zealand astronomer (born 1838).
• August 10 - Ádám Politzer (born 1835), Hungarian otologist.
• August 12 - Hermann Struve, Russian-born astronomer (born 1854).
• August 16 - Norman Lockyer, English astronomer (born 1836).
• August 31 - Wilhelm Wundt, German physiologist and psychologist (born 1832).
• October 17 - Reginald Farrer, English botanist (born 1880).
• November 4 - Ludwig Struve, Russian astronomer (born 1858).
• December 3 - William de Wiveleslie Abney, English astronomer and photographer (born 1843).

References