1912 in science

• December 6 – The Nefertiti Bust is found at Amarna in Egypt by the German Oriental Company (Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft – DOG), led by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt.

• At the beginning of this year an extreme decadal variation in length of day produces mean solar days having a duration of 86400.00389 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), the slowest rotation of Earth's crust ever to be recorded.{{cite journal|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A|issn=0080-4614|last1=Stephenson|first1=F. R.|last2=Morrison|first2=L. V.|last3=Whitrow|first3=G. J.|year=1984|volume=313|issue=1524|pages=47–70|url=http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/313/1524/47.full.pdf+html|format=PDF|title=Long-Term Changes in the Rotation of the Earth: 700 B.C. to A.D. 1980|location=London|doi=10.1098/rsta.1984.0082|bibcode=1984RSPTA.313...47S|s2cid=120566848|accessdate=2012-05-24|url-access=subscription}}

• July 23 – Horace Donisthorpe first discovers Anergates atratulus in the New Forest, England.
• Reginald Punnett is appointed as first Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics in the University of Cambridge (U.K.), probably the oldest chair of genetics in the English-speaking world.

• Peter Debye derives the T-cubed law for the low temperature heat capacity of a nonmetallic solid.
• Casimir Funk introduces the concept of vitamins.{{cite book|title=Just The Facts-Inventions & Discoveries|publisher=School Specialty Publishing|year=2005}}
• J. J. Thomson finds the first evidence for multiple isotopes of a stable (non-radioactive) element as part of his exploration into the composition of canal rays (positive ions).{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14786440808637325|title=XIX. Further experiments on positive rays|year=1912|last=Thomson|first=J. J.|journal=Philosophical Magazine|location=London|series=Series 6|volume=24|issue=140|pages=209–253|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430842}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14786441008636962|url=https://archive.org/details/RaysOfPositiveElectricity|title=LXXXIII. Rays of positive electricity|year=1910|last=Thomson|first=J. J.|journal=Philosophical Magazine|location=London|series=Series 6|volume=20|issue=118|pages=752–767}}
• Fritz Klatte, a German chemist working for Griesheim-Elektron, discovers polyvinyl acetate and applies for a patent for preparing the monomer, vinyl acetate, by addition of acetic acid to acetylene using a mercuric chloride catalystDeutsche Reichs Patent no. 281687 (4 July 1913); abstract in Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry (London) 34 (1915) p. 623. although it is not successfully commercialized at this time.
• Wilbur Scoville devises the Scoville scale for measuring the heat of peppers.
• December 24 – Merck files patent applications for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA, developed by Anton Köllisch.{{cite journal|author1=Bernschneider-Reif, S. |author2=Oxler, F. |author3=Freudenmann, R. W. |title=The Origin of MDMA ("Ecstasy") – Separating the Facts From the Myths|journal=Die Pharmazie|volume=61|issue=11|pages=966–972|year=2006|pmid=17152992}}{{cite web|url=http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=DE&NR=274350C&FT=D|title=German Patent 274350: Verfahren zur Darstellung von Alkyloxyaryl-, Dialkyloxyaryl- und Alkylendioxyarylaminopropanen bzw. deren am Stickstoff monoalkylierten Derivaten|author=Firma E. Merck in Darmstadt|date=1914-05-16|publisher=Kaiserliches Patentamt|accessdate=2009-04-12}}{{cite web|url=http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=DE&NR=279194C&FT=D|title=German Patent 279194: Verfahren zur Darstellung von Hydrastinin Derivaten|author=Firma E. Merck in Darmstadt|date=1914-10-15|publisher=Kaiserliches Patentamt|accessdate=2009-04-12}}

• January – Alfred Wegener proposes a fully formulated theory of continental drift and gives the supercontinent Pangaea its name.{{cite journal|last=Wegener|first=Alfred|date=January 6, 1912|title=Die Herausbildung der Grossformen der Erdrinde (Kontinente und Ozeane), auf geophysikalischer Grundlage|journal=Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen|volume=63|pages=185–195, 253–256, 305–309}}{{cite journal|url=http://epic.awi.de/28560/1/Polarforsch2005_1_3.pdf|accessdate=April 18, 2011|first=Imre Josef|last=Demhardt|title=Alfred Wegener's Hypothesis on Continental Drift and Its Discussion in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen (1912–1942)|journal=Polarforschung|volume=75|pages=29–35|year=2005}}
• June 6 – The Novarupta volcano on the Alaska Peninsula comes into being through a VEI 6 eruption, the largest this century.

• January 17 – British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four reach the South Pole to find that Amundsen has beaten them to it. They will die on the return journey, just eleven miles from a polar base (March 16–29).{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=978-0-14-102715-9|year=2006}}
• March 7 – Roald Amundsen announces in Hobart that his expedition reached the South Pole on last December 14.

• November 20 – History of Medicine Society holds its first meeting, under the chairmanship of Sir William Osler, in London.
• Georgius Agricola's De re metallica (1556) is first published in an English translation, made by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover, in London.
• Voynich manuscript discovered.

• Publication of the 2nd volume of Principia Mathematica by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.
• Karl F. Sundman solves the n-body problem for n=3.
• Axel Thue discovers Pisot–Vijayaraghavan numbers.

• Harvey Cushing identifies Cushing's disease, caused by a malfunction of the pituitary gland.
• Solomon Carter Fuller first names Alzheimer's disease.
• Hakaru Hashimoto first describes the symptoms of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.{{cite journal|first=H.|last=Hashimoto|title=Zur Kenntnis der lymphomatösen Veränderung der Schilddrüse (Struma lymphomatosa)|language=de|journal=Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie|year=1912|volume=97|pages=219–248}}

• Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patent austenitic stainless steel (October 17){{cite web|url=http://www.nirosta.de/History.22.0.html?&L=1|title=ThyssenKrupp Nirosta: History|accessdate=August 13, 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070902202906/http://www.nirosta.de/History.22.0.html?&L=1|archivedate=September 2, 2007|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}} and Elwood Haynes (in the United States) and Harry Brearley (of Brown-Firth in Sheffield, England) independently discover martensitic stainless steel alloys.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/scientificameric0000carl|url-access=registration|quote=Elwood Haynes 1919 patent number.|title=Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries|page=[https://archive.org/details/scientificameric0000carl/page/380 380]|first=Rodney P.|last=Carlisle|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|year=2004|isbn=978-0-471-24410-3| accessdate= 3 September 2011 }}{{cite news|work=The New York Times|title=A non-rusting steel|date=January 31, 1915}}

• April 5 – Milutin Milanković's [https://web.archive.org/web/20120316201406/http://scc.digital.nb.rs/document/II-184957 Contribution to the mathematical theory of climate], his first work in this field, is published in Belgrade.

• December 18 – Skull of "Piltdown Man" presented to the Geological Society of London as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown form of early human. It is revealed to be a hoax in 1953.

• November 11 – Lawrence Bragg presents his derivation of Bragg's law for the angles for coherent and incoherent scattering from a crystal lattice.To the Cambridge Philosophical Society. {{cite web|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1915/present.html|publisher=Nobel Foundation|accessdate=2012-11-29}}
• Max von Laue suggests using crystal lattices to diffract X-rays.
• Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping diffract X-rays in zinc blende.
• Victor Hess discovers that the ionization of air increases with altitude, indicating the existence of cosmic radiation.

• Carl Jung publishes Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Psychology of the Unconscious), based on lectures delivered at Fordham University and precipitating a break with Sigmund Freud.
• Sabina Spielrein delivers her paper on "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being" to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

• April 14–15 – Sinking of the Titanic: The ocean liner {{RMS|Titanic}} strikes an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.{{cite book|authorlink=Walter Lord|first=Walter|last=Lord|title=A Night to Remember|location=New York|publisher=Holt|year=1955|title-link=A Night to Remember (book)}}
• The British Royal Navy introduces the director ship gun fire-control system using the Dreyer Table, a mechanical analogue computer.{{cite journal|last=Brooks|first=John|year=2003|title=The Admiralty Fire Control Tables|journal=Warship |pages=69–93}}
• The Sperry Corporation develops the first gyroscopic autopilot ("gyroscopic stabilizer apparatus") for aviation use.
• The earth inductor compass is first patented by Donald M. Bliss.

• American ornithologist Robert Ridgway publishes Color Standards and Color Nomenclature.
• Conférence internationale de l'heure radiotélégraphique.
• First International Congress of Eugenics held in London with the support of Leonard Darwin, Winston Churchill, Auguste Forel, Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Davenport and other prominent scientists.{{cite book|last=Blom|first=Philipp|authorlink=Philipp Blom|title=The Vertigo Years: Change and Culture in the West, 1900-1914|year=2008|publisher=McClelland & Stewart|location=Toronto|isbn=978-0-7710-1630-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/334 334]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/vertigoyearschan0000blom/page/334}}

• Nobel Prize
• Physics – Gustaf Dalén{{cite web |title=These Nobel Prize Winners Weren't Always Noble |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151005-nobel-laureates-forget-racist-sexist-science/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808155045/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151005-nobel-laureates-forget-racist-sexist-science/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 8, 2020 |website=National Geographic News |access-date=19 January 2021 |date=6 October 2015}}
• Chemistry – Victor Grignard; Paul Sabatier
• Medicine – Alexis Carrel

• January 21 – Konrad Emil Bloch (died 2000), German-born biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• January 27 – Francis Rogallo (died 2009), American aeronautical engineer.
• January 30 – Werner Hartmann (died 1988), German physicist.
• February 13 – Natan Yavlinsky (died 1962), Russian nuclear physicist.
• February 25 – Preben von Magnus (died 1973), Danish virologist.
• March 1 – Boris Chertok (died 2011), Russian rocket designer.
• March 19 – Bill Frankland (died 2020), English immunologist.
• March 23 – Wernher von Braun (died 1977), German-born physicist and engineer.
• April 19 – Glenn T. Seaborg (died 1999), American physical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 22 – Herbert C. Brown (died 2004), English-born chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 28 – Ruby Payne-Scott (died 1981), Australian radioastronomer.
• May 30 – Julius Axelrod (died 2004), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• May 31 – Chien-Shiung Wu (died 1997), Chinese-American nuclear physicist, winner of the Wolf Prize in Physics.
• June 23 – Alan Turing (died 1954), English computer scientist.{{cite web |title=Alan Turing {{!}} Biography, Facts, & Education |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Turing |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |accessdate=14 February 2020 }}
• June 30 – Ludwig Bölkow (died 2003), German aeronautical engineer.
• August 11 – Norman Levinson (died 1975), American mathematician.
• August 13 – Salvador Luria (died 1991), Italian-born biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• August 30 – Edward Mills Purcell (died 1997), American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.{{cite web |title=E.M. Purcell {{!}} American physicist |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-M-Purcell |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=17 May 2021 }}
• September 7 – David Packard (died 1996), American electronics engineer.{{cite web|title=Obituary: David Packard|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-david-packard-1344506.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-david-packard-1344506.html |archive-date=May 1, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|website=The Independent|accessdate=21 February 2018|date=28 March 1996}}{{cbignore}}
• September 22 – Herbert Mataré (died 2011), German physicist.
• October 1 – Kathleen Ollerenshaw (died 2014), English mathematician.
• November 14 – Tung-Yen Lin (died 2003), Chinese-born civil engineer.
• November 19 – George Emil Palade (died 2008), Romanian-born microbiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• November 22 – Paul Zamecnik (died 2009), American scientist playing a central role in the early history of molecular biology.

• February 10 – Joseph Lister (born 1827), English inventor of antiseptic.
• February 12 – Osborne Reynolds (born 1842), British physicist.
• March 19 – Thomas Harrison Montgomery Jr. (born 1873), American zoologist and cell biologist.
• March 28 – Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (born 1838), French chemist.
• March 29
• Robert Falcon Scott (born 1868), English Antarctic explorer.
• Edward Wilson (born 1872), English physician and naturalist.
• April 18 – Martha Ripley (born 1843), American physician.{{cite book |last1=Ogilvie |first1=Marilyn Bailey |last2=Harvey |first2=Joy Dorothy |author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |author-link2=Joy Harvey |title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z |date=2000 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-92040-7 |page=1102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&pg=PA1102 }}
• May 4 – Nettie Stevens (born 1861), American geneticist.
• May 30 – Wilbur Wright (born 1867), American aviation pioneer.
• July 17 – Henri Poincaré (born 1854), French mathematician.
• August 7 – François-Alphonse Forel (born 1841), Swiss pioneer of limnology.
• November 23 – Charles Bourseul (born 1829), French telegraph engineer.
• December 17 – Spiru Haret (born 1851), Romanian mathematician, astronomer and politician.
• December 21 – Paul Gordan (born 1837), German Jewish mathematician, "the king of invariant theory".

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1910s in science