The year 1952 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

* August 1 – Around 9 o'clock AM Pacific Time Zone, the San Benedicto rock wren goes

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

as its island home is smothered in a massive volcanic eruption. * August 14 – Alan Turing's paper " The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" is published, putting forward a reaction–diffusion hypothesis of pattern formation, considered a seminal piece of work in morphogenesis. * August 28 – Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley publish the Hodgkin–Huxley model of action potentials in neurons of the squid giant axon. * September 20 – Publication of the paper on the Hershey–Chase experiment showing conclusively that DNA, not protein, is the genetic material of

bacteriophage A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bacteri ...

s. * October – Danish virologist

Preben von Magnus Preben Christian Alexander von Magnus (25 February 1912 – 9 August 1973) was a Danish virologist who is known for his research on influenza, polio vaccination and monkeypox. He gave his name to the Von Magnus phenomenon. In the 1950s, togethe ...

publishes his observation of the von Magnus phenomenon producing defective interfering particles. * Biochemists Jack Gross and Rosalind Pitt-Rivers discover the

thyroid hormone File:Thyroid_system.svg, upright=1.5, The thyroid system of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4 rect 376 268 820 433 Thyroid-stimulating hormone rect 411 200 849 266 Thyrotropin-releasing hormone rect 297 168 502 200 Hypothalamus rect 66 216 386 25 ...

triiodothyronine. * The Braeburn apple cultivar is discovered as a

chance seedling A chance seedling is a plant that is the product of unintentional breeding. Identifying the parent plants of a chance seedling may be difficult. It may be necessary to genetically analyse the seedling and surrounding plants to be sure. Plants tha ...

in New Zealand. * Last confirmed sighting of the

Caribbean monk seal The Caribbean monk seal (''Neomonachus tropicalis''), also known as the West Indian seal or sea wolf, was a species of seal native to the Caribbean which is now believed to be extinct. The main predators of Caribbean monk seals were sharks and h ...

, at Serranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Nicaragua.

Chemistry

* Soviet scientists L. V. Radushkevich and V. M. Lukyanovich publish images of

carbon nanotube A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon na ...

Computer science

* The first autocode and its compiler are developed by

Alick Glennie Alick Edwards Glennie (1925–2003) was a British computer scientist, most famous for having developed Autocode, which many people regard as the first ever computer compiler.Knuth, Donald E.; Pardo, Luis Trabb, "Early development of programmin ...

for the Manchester Mark 1 computer, considered as the first working high-level compiled programming language.

History of science

* Discovery by Derek J. de Solla Price of a lost medieval scientific work entitled ''Equatorie of the Planetis'', initially attributed to

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

Mathematics

* John Forbes Nash, Jr. produces groundbreaking work in the area of real

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

. * The Bradley–Terry model in probability theory is presented.

Medicine

* February 6 – A mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient, in the United States. * March 1 – The

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the organ ...

is founded. * September 2 – The first successful operation to correct a cardiac shunt ("hole in the heart") is performed by Drs F. John Lewis and C. Walton Lillehei on a 5-year-old girl in the United States utilising the induced hypothermia technique developed by Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow. * November – Royal College of General Practitioners established in the United Kingdom. * November 20 – The first successful sex reassignment surgery is performed in Copenhagen, making George Jorgensen Jr. become Christine Jorgensen. * December 14 – The first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio. * December –

Robert Gwyn Macfarlane Robert Gwyn Macfarlane (26 June 1907 – 26 March 1987) was an English hematologist. Life Born in Worthing, Sussex, Gwyn Macfarlane left Cheltenham College in 1924 and a year later entered the Medical School of St Bartholomew's Hospital, L ...

and colleagues publish the first identification of Haemophilia B. * American obstetrical anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar devises the

Apgar score The Apgar score is a quick way for doctors to evaluate the health of all newborns at 1 and 5 minutes after birth and in response to Neonatal resuscitation, resuscitation. It was originally developed in 1952 by an anesthesiologist at Columbia Univ ...

as a simple replicable method of quickly and summarily assessing the health of babies immediately after childbirth. * American orthopedic surgeon Armin Klein publishes

Klein's line Klein's line or the line of Klein is a virtual line that can be drawn on an X-ray of an adolescent's hip parallel to the anatomically upper edge of the femoral neck. It was the first tool to aid in the early diagnosis of a slipped capital femoral ...

as a diagnostic tool. *

Jean Delay Jean Delay (14 November 1907, Bayonne – 29 May 1987, Paris) was a French psychiatrist, neurologist, writer, and a member of the Académie française (Chair 17). His assistant Pierre Deniker conducted a test of chlorpromazine on the male mental ...

, head of psychiatry at Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris, with Jean-François Buisson, reports the

antidepressant Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common side-effects of antidepressants include dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, hea ...

effect of isoniazid.

Physics

* November 1 –

Nuclear testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...

Operation Ivy Operation Ivy was the eighth series of American nuclear tests, coming after '' Tumbler-Snapper'' and before '' Upshot–Knothole''. The two explosions were staged in late 1952 at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Is ...

– The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen device, codenamed " Ivy Mike" m" for megaton at Eniwetok island in the Bikini Atoll located in the Pacific Ocean. The elements einsteinium and fermium are discovered in the fallout. * Geoffrey Dummer proposes the

integrated circuit An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

Technology

* September 30 – The Cinerama widescreen film system, developed by Fred Waller, debuts with the movie '' This Is Cinerama'' at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. * October 7 – The barcode is patented in the United States by Norman J. Woodland and

Bernard Silver Bernard Silver (September 21, 1924 – August 28, 1963) was an early developer of barcode technology alongside Norman Joseph Woodland. Silver earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1947. ...

, though it does not make its first appearance in an American shop until

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

Awards

* Nobel Prizes ** Physics – Felix Bloch,

Edward Mills Purcell Edward Mills Purcell (August 30, 1912 – March 7, 1997) was an American physicist who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent discovery (published 1946) of nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and in solids. Nuclear magne ...

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

– Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge ** Medicine – Selman Abraham Waksman

Births

* February 2 –

Ralph Merkle Ralph C. Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a computer scientist and mathematician. He is one of the inventors of public-key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker on cryonics. Contribution ...

, American computer scientist, co-inventor of public-key cryptography. * February 15 – Frances Ashcroft, English geneticist. * February 19 – Marcia McNutt, American

geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

, science editor, and president of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. * February 28 –

Simon P. Norton Simon Phillips Norton (28 February 1952 – 14 February 2019)

(died 2019 in science, 2019), English mathematician, co-discoverer of ' monstrous moonshine'. * March 24 – Reinhard Genzel, German astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, co-discovererer of

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

s. * July 15 – Ann Dowling, English mechanical engineer. * August 14 – Peter Fonagy, Hungarian-born British psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist. * August 25 – Charles M. Rice, American virologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, co-discovererer of the hepatitis C virus. * Venki Ramakrishnan, Indian-born American-British structural biologist.

Deaths

* March 5 –

Sir Charles Sherrington Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (27 November 1857 – 4 March 1952) was an eminent English neurophysiologist. His experimental research established many aspects of contemporary neuroscience, including the concept of the spinal reflex as a system ...

(born

1857 Events January–March * January 1 – The biggest Estonian newspaper, ''Postimees'', is established by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. * January 7 – The partly French-owned London General Omnibus Company begins operating. * Janua ...

), English neurophysiologist and bacteriologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932. * June 17 –

Jack Parsons John Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer, chemist, and Thelema, Thelemite occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology ...

(born

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

), American rocket engineer and occultist. * September 5 – Hermann Stieve (born

1886 Events January–March * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5– 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson's novella ''Strange ...

), German anatomist and histologist. * November 2 – Chaim Weizmann (born

1874 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...

), Belarusian-born chemist, first President of Israel. * November 24 –

André Rochon-Duvigneaud André Rochon-Duvigneaud (7 April 1863 – 24 November 1952) was a French ophthalmologist born in Dordogne. He studied medicine in Bordeaux, and in 1889 became an intern at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris. In 1892 he earned his doctorate with a thesis on ...

(born

1863 Events January–March * January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims t ...

), French

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Followin ...

. * December 4 –

Karen Horney Karen Horney (; ; 16 September 1885 – 4 December 1952) was a German psychoanalyst who practised in the United States during her later career. Her theories questioned some traditional Freudian views. This was particularly true of her theories of ...

(born

1885 Events January–March * January 3– 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietnam. * January 4 – ...

), German American

psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...

. * December 19 – Colonel Sir Charles Arden-Close (born

1865 Events January–March * January 4 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at Broad Street (Manhattan), 10-12 Broad near Wall Street, in New York City. * January 13 – American Civil War : Sec ...

), British

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:1952 In Science 20th century in science 1950s in science