1948 in science explained

The year 1948 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space science

• February 16 – Miranda, innermost of the large moons of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper from the McDonald Observatory in Texas.^[1]
• October 10 – An R-1 (missile) on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.^[2]

Biology

• August 7 – Teaching and research in Mendelian genetics is prohibited in the Soviet Union in favour of Lysenkoist theories of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.^{[3] [4]}
• October 5 – Delegates to a conference organised by Sir Julian Huxley at Fontainebleau agree to formation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.^[5]
• November 20 – The South Island takahē, a flightless bird generally thought to have been extinct for fifty years, is rediscovered by Geoffrey Orbell near Lake Te Anau in the South Island of New Zealand.
• Last recorded sighting of the Caspian tiger in Kazakhstan.
• Publication of Fairfield Osborne's Our Plundered Planet, a Malthusian critique of human environmental destruction.^{[6] [7]}

Computer science

• May 12 – World's first stored-program computer operates, the mechanical ARC (Automatic Relay Calculator) at Birkbeck College, University of London (largely built by Kathleen Booth).^[8]
• June 21 – World's first working program run on an electronic stored-program computer, the Manchester Baby (written by Tom Kilburn).^[9]
• July–October – Claude E. Shannon publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in Bell System Technical Journal, regarded as a foundation of information theory,^[10] introducing the concept of Shannon entropy and adopting the term Bit.

History of science

• December 17 – The original Wright Flyer goes on display in the Smithsonian Institution.

Medicine and human sciences

• January 5 – The first Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, is published in the United States.
• April 7 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
• July 5 – The National Health Service begins functioning in the United Kingdom, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.^[11]
• Winter 1948/49 – Outbreak of Akureyri disease in Iceland.
• In psychology, Bertram Forer demonstrates the Barnum effect (that people tend to accept generalised descriptions of personality as uniquely applicable to themselves).
• Julius Axelrod and Bernard Brodie identify the analgesic properties of acetaminophen.

Meteorology

• March 25 – Meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issue the world's first tornado forecast, for the second of the 1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes.

Physics

• April 1 – Physicists Ralph Asher Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper about the Big Bang.^[12]
• May 29 – Casimir effect predicted by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.^[13]
• Herbert Fröhlich makes a key breakthrough in understanding superconductivity, at the University of Liverpool.^[14]

Technology

• June 18 – Columbia Records unveil the LP records developed by Peter Goldmark of CBS Laboratories.^{[15] [16] [17]}
• First modern long-span permanent box girder bridge completed, between Cologne and Deutz.^[18]

Publications

• First publication of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine.
• Publication in Britain of the novel No Highway by former aeronautical engineer Nevil Shute, dealing with the effects of metal fatigue on aircraft.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett
  • Chemistry – Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius
  • Medicine – Paul Hermann Müller

Births

• January 30 – Akira Yoshino, Japanese chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• March 1 – Alison Richard, English primatologist and academic.
• March 9 – László Lovász, Hungarian computer scientist.
• March 21 – Robert Watson, British atmospheric chemist.
• May – David Mabberley, English-born plant taxonomist.
• June 13 – Nina L. Etkin (died 2009), American anthropologist and biologist.
• June 28 – Kenneth Alan Ribet, American mathematician.
• July 20 – Martin Green, Australian solar cell researcher.
• August 4 – Giorgio Parisi, Italian theoretical physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• August 7 – James P. Allison, American immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• August 25 – Nicholas A. Peppas, Greek chemical and biomedical engineer.
• August 29 – Robert S. Langer, American biomedical engineer.
• August 30 – Victor Skumin, Russian scientist, psychiatrist and psychologist; describes Skumin syndrome in 1978.
• September 2 – Christa McAuliffe, born Sharon Christa Corrigan (died 1986), American astronaut.
• October 29 – Frans de Waal, Dutch primatologist.
• October 31 – Mu-ming Poo, Chinese neuroscientist.
• December 30 – Randy Schekman, American cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Margaret Allen, American cardiothoracic surgeon.
• Robert Plomin, American-born psychologist.

Deaths

• January 30 – Orville Wright (born 1871), American pioneer aviator.
• May 26 – Sir George Newman (born 1870), English public health physician.
• June 10 – Philippa Fawcett (born 1868), English mathematician.
• June 21 – D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (born 1860), Scottish biologist.
• December 12 – Marjory Stephenson (born 1885), English biochemist.

Notes and References

1. Book: Moore, Patrick. Patrick Moore

   . Patrick Moore. 1995. The Guinness Book of Astronomy. 5th. Enfield, UK. Guinness Publishing. 978-0851126432. 110.

2. Web site: R-1. https://web.archive.org/web/20160820192642/http://www.astronautix.com/r/r-1.html. dead. August 20, 2016. Wade. Mark. 2020-12-06.
3. Book: Joravsky, David. The Lysenko Affair. registration. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. 1970. Russian Research Center studies, 61. 978-0-674-53985-3.
4. The descent of Lysenko. Cohen. Barry M.. The Journal of Heredity. 56. 229–233. 1965. 5. 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a107425.
5. Web site: IUCN: A Bridge-Builder for Nature Conservation . Christoffersen . Leif E. . 1994 . Green Globe YearBook . 2011-11-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081216230117/http://www.fni.no/YBICED/97_04_christoffersen.pdf . 2008-12-16 .
6. Book: Netzley, Patricia. Environmental Literature. ABC-CLIO. 1999. California. 978-1-57607-000-0.
7. The Post War Intellectual Roots of the Population Bomb: Fairfield Osborne's Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt's Road to Survival in retrospect . Pierre . Desrochers . Christine . Hoffbauer . The Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development . 2009 . 1 . 3 . 73–97 . 2011-12-08 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120302185414/http://www.dpi.inpe.br/sil/cst310/Aula2_fundamentos/THE_POST_WAR_INTELLECTUAL_ROOTS_OF_THE_POPULATION_BOMB_-_FAIRFIELD_OSBORNS_OUR_PLUNDERED_PLANET_AND_WILLIAM_VOGTS_ROAD_TO_SURVIVAL_IN_RETROSPECT.pdf . 2012-03-02 .
8. News: Martin. Campbell-Kelly. Kathleen Booth. The Guardian. London. 2022-11-12. 9 (Journal). 2022-11-13.
9. Enticknap. Nicholas. Computing's Golden Jubilee. Resurrection. 20. Computer Conservation Society. Summer 1998. 0958-7403. 2011-11-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20120109142655/http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/CCS/res/res20.htm#d. 2012-01-09. dead.
10. James. Ioan. 2009. Claude Elwood Shannon 30 April 1916 – 24 February 2001. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 55. 257–265. 10.1098/rsbm.2009.0015. free.
11. Web site: The Lost Decade Timeline. BBC. 2007-09-25. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20060821133044/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/lostdecade/timeline_html.shtml. 2006-08-21.
12. Alpher . R. A. . H. . Bethe . Hans Bethe . G. . Gamow . 1948-04-01 . The Origin of Chemical Elements . 2011-03-10 . . 73 . 7 . 803–804 . 10.1103/PhysRev.73.803 . 1948PhRv...73..803A . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20131012083332/http://www.snolab.ca/public/JournalClub/michael1.pdf . 2013-10-12 . free .
13. Casimir. H. B. G.. 1948. On the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates. Proc. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wet.. 51. 793.
14. Web site: Science Places Liverpool. 2008. 2011-03-20.
15. Book: Goldmark, Peter. Maverick Inventor: My Turbulent Years at CBS. New York. Saturday Review Press. 1973. 978-0-8415-0046-4.
16. Columbia Diskery: CBS Show Microgroove Platters to Press; Tell How It Began. Billboard. 1948-06-26. 3.
17. Book: Marmorstein, Gary. The Label: the Story of Columbia Records. New York. Thunder's Mouth Press. 2007. 978-1-56025-707-3. 165.
18. Book: Brown, David J.. Bridges. London. Mitchell Beazley. 1993. 978-1-85732-163-0. 94.