1942 in science

The year 1942 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• February 27 –
  radio waves emitted by the Sun, helping to pioneer radio astronomy.^[1]
• October 3 – The first V-2 rocket is successfully launched from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany, flying a distance of 147 km and reaching a height of 84.5 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach space.

Biology

• pathologist Max Westenhöfer first puts forward an aquatic ape hypothesis.^[2]

• Cyanoacrylate adhesive is invented by
  Eastman Kodak.^[3]
• Eastman Kodak first market Kodacolor color negative film.^[4]

Computer science

• Atanasoff–Berry Computer, the first electronic digital computing device.^[5]

• December – Raphaël Salem and Donald C. Spencer publish a progression-free Salem–Spencer set of the numbers from ${\displaystyle 1}$ to ${\displaystyle n}$ of size proportional to ${\displaystyle n^{1-\varepsilon }}$, for every ${\displaystyle \varepsilon >0}$.^[6]

Physics

• August 13 –
  Major General Eugene Reybold formally establishes the 'Manhattan Engineer District' of the Corps of Engineers to undertake production facility construction work for what will become known as the Manhattan Project.^[7][8]
• December 2 –
  Leó Szilárd, George Weil
  and the rest of the Chicago pile team.

• November 1 – Klinefelter syndrome is first described by American endocrinologist Harry Klinefelter.^[9][10]
• mechlorethamine.^[11]
• The first practical
  oximeter is described by Glenn Allan Millikan.^[12]

• March – Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are introduced in his short story "Runaround" published in Astounding Science-Fiction.
• July 18 – Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft prototype makes its first flight under jet power.
• August 11 – Composer George Antheil and actress Hedy Lamarr are granted a United States patent^[13] for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect.^[14]
• October 2 – The first American-built jet aircraft, the Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter prototype, makes its first official flight.^[15]
• November 26 – First operational military Bailey bridge erected by British Royal Engineers over the Medjerda River near Majaz al Bab in Tunisia.^[16]
• Walter Bruch operates a closed-circuit television system to monitor the V-2 rocket launches.^[17]

Births

• January 8 –
  cosmologist and best-selling author of A Brief History of Time (died 2018
  )
• January 12 – Michel Mayor, Swiss astronomer, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physics
• January 27 – Tasuku Honjo, Japanese immunologist, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• March 27 – John Sulston, English molecular biologist, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 2018)
• May 24 – Fraser Stoddart, Scottish-born chemist, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• June 8 –
  biophysicist
  , recipient of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• August 24 – Karen Uhlenbeck, American mathematician
• October 20 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German developmental geneticist, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• November 14 –
  astrophysicist (died 2014
  )
• November 22 – Guion Bluford, African American aerospace engineer and astronaut
• November 30 – André Brahic, French astrophysicist (died 2016)
• December 1 – John Clauser, American quantum physicist, recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physics^[18]

Deaths

• March 10 – William Henry Bragg, English recipient of a Nobel Prize in Physics (born 1862)
• March 14 –
  botanist (born 1873
  )
• May 19 – Joseph Larmor, Irish physicist (born 1857)
• August 6 – Valdemar Poulsen, Danish audio engineer (born 1869)
• August 12 –
  psychoanalyst, in Zmievskaya Balka massacre^[19] (born 1885
  )
• September 22 – Isaak Bacharach, German mathematician (born 1854)
• October 5 – Dorothea Klumpke, American astronomer (born 1861)
• October 27 – Alfred Baker, Canadian mathematician (born 1848)
• November 3 –
  entomologist, speared by Ugandan tribesmen amongst whom he was working (born 1900
  ).
• November 5 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon, biologist and winner of a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (born 1873)
• November 13 –
  Auschwitz (born 1888
  )
• December 21 – Franz Boas, German American anthropologist (born 1858)
• naturalist (born 1864
  )