1921 in science

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The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space science

• Commencement of
  rocket technology.^[1]

• Winkel tripel projection proposed.

Chemistry

• Étienne Biéler and James Chadwick publish a key paper on the strong interaction.^[2]
• December 9 – Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of tetraethyllead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline (petrol).

Exploration

• the northernmost point of land on Earth
  .

Mathematics

• John Maynard Keynes publishes A Treatise on Probability.
• Marston Morse applies the Thue–Morse sequence to differential geometry.
• Emmy Noether publishes Idealtheorie in Ringbereichen, developing ideal ring theory, an important text in the field of abstract algebra.^[3][4]
• First publication of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, as "Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung" in Annalen der Naturphilosophie.
• Percy Alexander MacMahon depicts Cairo pentagonal tiling.^[5]

Medicine

• April–August –
  pancreatic
  extract.
• July 18 – The first
  BCG vaccination against tuberculosis
  .
• July 27 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
• American biochemist Elmer McCollum identifies the presence of a component in cod liver oil which cures rickets, which he calls vitamin D.^[6][7][8]
• epidural anesthesia
  .

Physics

• July – Wolfgang Pauli is awarded his Doctor of Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich for his thesis Über das Modell des Wasserstoff-Molekülions ("About the Hydrogen Molecular Ion Model").
• gravitation and electromagnetism
  .

• Hermann Rorschach publishes Psychodiagnostik, proposing the inkblot test.
• Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault publishes Les Psychoses passionelles, a comprehensive review of erotomania.

Technology

• Spring and summer – 14-year-old American farm boy Philo Farnsworth devises the image dissector, the basis for the first version of television.
• October 18 – Charles Strite is granted a patent for the automatic electric pop-up bread toaster.^[9]
• October 25 – Hugo A. F. Abt is granted a patent for his design of bascule bridge.^[10]
• The vibraphone in its original form is invented in the United States.

Institutions

• Journalist
  Society for Science and the Public
  , in the United States with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific developments.

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Physics – Albert Einstein – awarded 1922
  • Chemistry – Frederick Soddy
  • Physiology or Medicine – not awarded

Births

• January 18 –
  nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
  .
• February 3 –
  Ralph Asher Alpher (died 2007
  ), American cosmologist.
• March 11 –
  naturalist
  .
• April 21 – John R. Huizenga (died 2014), American nuclear physicist.
• April 30
  • Roger L. Easton (died 2014), American physicist, principal inventor of the Global Positioning System.
  • Ralph A. Lewin (died 2008), Anglo-American biologist, "the father of green algae genetics".
  • Jennifer Moyle (died 2016), English research biochemist.
• May 18 – Olgierd Zienkiewicz (died 2009), British civil engineer.
• June 1 –
  organic chemist
  .
• June 9 –
  biomedical engineer
  .
• June 14 –
  Hungarian biologist
  .
• June 15 –
  orthopedic surgeon
  .
• June 26 – Anne Beloff-Chain (died 1991), British biochemist.
• July 4 –
  Aron Arthur Moscona (died 2009), American developmental biologist
  .
• July 18
  • Aaron T. Beck (died 2021), American psychiatrist, "father of cognitive therapy".^[11]
  • John Glenn (died 2016), American astronaut.
• August 16 – Rudolf Trümpy (died 2009), Swiss geologist.
• October 5 – Mahlon Hoagland (died 2009), American biochemist, discoverer of transfer RNA (tRNA).
• October 18 –
  Beatrice Helen Worsley (died 1972), Mexican-born Canadian computer scientist
  .
• October 21 – Victor A. McKusick (died 2008), American "father of genetic medicine".
• December 2 – Isabella Karle (died 2017), American physical chemist

Deaths

• January 20 – Mary Watson Whitney, American astronomer (born 1847)^[12]
• January 23 –
  neuroanatomist
  .
• March 11 – Sherburne Wesley Burnham (born 1838), American astronomer.
• March 29 – John Burroughs (born 1837), American naturalist.
• June 7 –
  ornithologist
  .
• August 29 –
  zoologist
  .
• October 23 –
  inventor
  .
• December 12 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt (born 1868), American astronomer.

References