1932 in science

The year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space sciences

• August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie, Missouri.
• long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud (the Öpik–Oort cloud) at the outermost edge of the Solar System.^[1]

• English geneticist C. D. Darlington publishes Recent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics of chromosomal crossover^[2] and its role in evolutionary science.
• English geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution, unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
• American
  physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon publishes The Wisdom of the Body, developing and popularising the concept of homeostasis
  .
• A flock of Soay sheep is translocated from Soay to Hirta (also in the depopulated archipelago of St Kilda, Scotland) by conservationist John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute.
• The heath hen becomes extinct in North America.

Earth sciences

• X rays.^[3][4]

• Menger-Nöbeling theorem.
• John von Neumann makes foundational contributions to ergodic theory in a series of papers.^[5][6][7]
• recursive function theory, "Rekursive Funktionen," to the International Congress of Mathematicians
  in Zurich, Switzerland.
• December –
  Biuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics – permutation group theory – to breaking the German armed forces' Enigma machine ciphers.^[8][9]

• January 5 – The pathology of Cushing's syndrome is first described by Harvey Cushing.^[10][11]
• terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known as Crohn's disease.^[12]
• Type I tyrosinemia
  .
• Swedish neurosurgeon Herbert Olivecrona performs the first surgical excision of an intracranial arteriovenous malformation.
• gastroscope, in Germany.^[13]
• Commencement of the 40-year
  sharecroppers in Alabama without their informed consent.^[14]
• First published use of the term Medical genetics, in an article by Madge Thurlow Macklin.^[15]
• Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus

Pharmacology

• anti-scorbutic
  .
• December 25 –
  Bayer laboratories.^[16]

• April 14 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.
• May – Radio Luxembourg begins high-powered longwave test transmissions aimed directly at the British Isles which prove, inadvertently, to be the first radio modification of the ionosphere.^[17]
• May 10 – James Chadwick discovers the neutron.^[18][19] Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept of isospin.^[20]
• August 2 – The positron is observed by Carl Anderson.^[21]
• November 1 – The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment is published, showing that measured time as well as length is affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of special relativity.^[22]
• John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics in Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik.
• gravimeters
  .

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Werner Karl Heisenberg
  • Chemistry – Irving Langmuir
  • Edgar Adrian

Births

• January 16 –
  primatologist
  .
• February 7 – Alfred Worden (died 2020), American astronaut.
• February 10 – Robert Taylor (died 2017), American computer scientist.
• March 10 –
  space scientist
  .
• March 14 –
  ornithologist
  .
• March 15 – Alan Bean (died 2018), American astronaut.
• March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist and Nobel laureate
• March 24 – Lodewijk van den Berg (died 2022), Dutch-born American chemical engineer and astronaut
• April 26 – Michael Smith (died 2000), English-born biochemist, recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 22 – Robert Spitzer (died 2015), American psychiatrist.
• July 10 – Ioan Pușcaș (died 2015), Romanian gastroenterologist.
• July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher of the mind and language.
• August 4 –
  Frances E. Allen (died 2020), American computer scientist, Turing Award
  winner.
• August 15 – Robert L. Forward (died 2002), American science fiction author and physicist.
• August 18 –
  human immunodeficiency virus
  (HIV).
• September 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov (died 2002), Russian cosmonaut.
• September 29 – Rainer Weiss, German-born American physicist, joint recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for detection of gravitational waves.
• October 1 – Biswa Ranjan Nag (died 2004), Indian physicist.
• October 3 –
  cardiac surgeon
  .
• October 13 – John G. Thompson, American mathematician.
• November 6 –
  theoretical physicist, joint recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the Higgs mechanism
  .
• December 15 – John Meurig Thomas (died 2020), Welsh physical chemist.

Deaths

• February 29 –
  botanist
  .
• March 14 – George Eastman (born 1854), American photography pioneer (suicide).
• April 3 –
  Baltic German chemist
  .
• April 20 – Giuseppe Peano (born 1858), Italian mathematician.
• May 29 –
  zoologist
  and explorer.
• June 21 –
  African American
  racing cyclist.
• July 9 –
  inventor
  .
• July 14 – Fran Jesenko (born 1875), Slovene botanist and plant geneticist.
• July 22 – Reginald Fessenden (born 1866), Canadian American radio broadcasting pioneer.
• August 9 – John Charles Fields (born 1863), Canadian mathematician.
• September 16 – Sir
  physiologist
  .
• November 12 – Sir
  mechanical engineer
  .

References