1977 in science

The year 1977 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• March 10 – Rings of Uranus discovered by Kuiper Airborne Observatory measurements of star occultation.
• August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle makes its first test free-flight from the back of a jetliner.
• August 20 – Voyager program: The United States launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
• September 5 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
• 2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, discovered by Charlie Kowal.
• Discovery of the Carina Dwarf galaxy by the UK Schmidt Telescope.

Biology

• Carl Woese and George E. Fox classify archaea as a new, separate domain of life.^[1]

Computer science

• June 5 – The first Apple II home computers (largely designed by Steve Wozniak) go on sale in the U.S., among the first successful mass-produced microcomputers.^[2][3]

Medicine

• January 18 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the "Legionnaires' disease".
• July 3 – Dr Raymond Damadian with Larry Minkoff and Michael Goldsmith perform the first magnetic resonance imaging body scan of a human.^[4][5][6][7]
• September 11 – The last "wild" infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.^[8]
• September 16 – The first percutaneous coronary intervention on a sentient patient is performed by cardiologist Andreas Gruentzig in Zurich.^[9][10]

Oceanography

• Discovery of hydrothermal vent ecosystems near the Galapagos Islands.

Technology

• August 23 – Gossamer Condor demonstrates that it is the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight by winning the Kremer prize. It was created by Paul MacCready and Peter Lissaman of AeroVironment and piloted by Bryan Allen at Minter Field in Shafter, California.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck van Vleck
  • Chemistry – Ilya Prigogine
  • Medicine – Roger Guillemin, Andrew V. Schally, Rosalyn Yalow
• Turing Award – John Backus

Deaths

• June 3 – Archibald Hill (b. 1886), English physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• June 16 – Wernher von Braun (b. 1912), German-born American physicist and engineer.

References