1924 in science

The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• The Einstein Tower near Potsdam, Germany, designed by Erich Mendelsohn, becomes operational as an astrophysical observatory.
• 1056 Azalea is discovered.

Physics

• S. N. Bose and Albert Einstein publish papers in Zeitschrift für Physik applying Bose–Einstein statistics to light quanta and to atomic models and predicting existence of the Bose–Einstein condensate.
• E. C. Stoner publishes a paper^[1] pointing out that for a given value of the principal quantum number (n), the number of energy levels of a single electron in the alkali metal spectra in an external magnetic field, where all degenerate energy levels are separated, is equal to the number of electrons in the closed shell of the rare gases for the same value of n. This leads to discovery of the Pauli exclusion principle.

Technology

• February 5 - Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcast for the first time.
• February - John Logie Baird sends rudimentary television pictures over a short distance.^[2]
• Václav Holek designs the ZB vz. 26 light machine gun for Zbrojovka Brno.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics: Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
  • Medicine: Willem Einthoven

Births

• June 24 - James W. Black, Scottish pharmacologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1988) (died 2010)
• November 20 - Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-born French American mathematician, originator of fractal geometry (died 2010)

Deaths

• February 11 - Jacques Loeb, German-born physiologist (born 1859)
• March 22 - Sir William Macewen, Scottish surgeon (born 1848)
• April 4 - Arnold Pick, Czech neurologist (born 1851)
• April 24 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist (born 1844)
• September 24 - Alexandre Lacassagne, French forensic scientist (born 1843)

References