1932 in science

• August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie, Missouri.
• Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud (the Öpik–Oort cloud) at the outermost edge of the Solar System.{{cite journal|first=E.|last=Öpik |title=Note on Stellar Perturbations of Nearly Parabolic Orbits|journal=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences|volume=67|issue=6|pages=169–183|doi=10.2307/20022899|jstor=20022899 |date=October 1932|bibcode=1932PAAAS..67..169O }}

• English geneticist C. D. Darlington publishes Recent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics of chromosomal crossover{{cite journal|last1=Benirschke|first1=K.|title=The Man Who Invented the Chromosome: A Life of Cyril Darlington|doi=10.1093/jhered/esh080|journal=Journal of Heredity|volume=95|issue=6|pages=541–542|year=2004|doi-access=free}} 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.

• Braggite is first described, the first mineral discovered with the assistance of X rays.{{cite web|url=http://www.mindat.org/min-751.html|title=Braggite|publisher=Mindat.org|accessdate=2011-08-18}}{{cite book|chapter-url=http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/braggite.pdf|chapter=Braggite|title=Handbook of Mineralogy|date=2001–2005|publisher=Mineral Data Publishing|accessdate=2011-08-18}}

• Menger-Nöbeling theorem.
• John von Neumann makes foundational contributions to ergodic theory in a series of papers.{{cite journal|first=John|last=von Neumann|title=Proof of the Quasi-ergodic Hypothesis|year=1932|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=18|pages=70–82|doi=10.1073/pnas.18.1.70|pmid=16577432|issue=1|pmc=1076162|bibcode=1932PNAS...18...70N |doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|first=John|last=von Neumann|title=Physical Applications of the Ergodic Hypothesis|year=1932|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=18|pages=263–266|doi=10.1073/pnas.18.3.263|pmid=16587674|issue=3|pmc=1076204|jstor=86260|bibcode=1932PNAS...18..263N|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|authorlink=Paul Halmos|quote=if von Neumann had never done anything else, they would have been sufficient to guarantee him mathematical immortality.|title=Von Neumann on Measure and Ergodic Theory|first=Paul R.|last=Halmos|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society|volume=64|issue=3|year=1958|pages=86–94|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1958-10203-7|doi-access=free|url=https://projecteuclid.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-american-mathematical-society/volume-64/issue-3.P2/Von-Neumann-on-measure-and-ergodic-theory/bams/1183522373.pdf}}
• Rózsa Péter presents the results of her paper on recursive function theory, "Rekursive Funktionen," to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich, Switzerland.
• December – Marian Rejewski of the Polish Biuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics – permutation group theory – to breaking the German armed forces' Enigma machine ciphers.{{cite book|authorlink=David Kahn (writer)|first=David|last=Kahn|title=The Codebreakers|edition=2nd|year=1996|page=974}}{{cite book|last=Kozaczuk|first=Władysław|authorlink=Władysław Kozaczuk|year=1984|title=Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher was Broken, and how it was Read by the Allies in World War Two|location=Frederick, Md|publisher=University Publications of America|isbn=978-0-89093-547-7|pages=234–236}}

• January 5 – The pathology of Cushing's syndrome is first described by Harvey Cushing.{{cite journal|first=Harvey|last=Cushing|title=The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body and their clinical manifestations (pituitary basophilism)|journal=Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital|volume=50|pages=137–95|year=1932}} Reprinted in {{cite journal|last1=Cushing|first1=Harvey|title=The basophil adenomas of the pituitary body|journal=Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England|date=April 1969|volume=44|issue=4|pages=180–1|pmid=19310569|pmc=2387613}}{{cite news|title=Dr. Cushing Dead; Brain Surgeon, 70. A Pioneer Who Won Fame as Founder of New School of Neuro-Surgery. Discovered Malady Affecting Pituitary Gland. Was Noted Teacher and Author|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/10/08/archives/drcushing-dead-brain-surgeon-70-a-pioneer-who-won-fame-as-founder.html|work=The New York Times|date=8 October 1939|accessdate=2010-03-21}}
• American gastroenterologist Burrill Bernard Crohn and colleagues describe a series of patients with "regional ileitis", inflammation of the terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known as Crohn's disease.{{cite journal|last1=Crohn|first1=B. B.|last2=Ginzburg|first2=L.|last3=Oppenheimer|first3=G. D.|title=Regional ileitis: a pathologic and clinical entity, 1932|journal=Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine|volume=67|issue=3|pages=263–8|year=2000|pmid=10828911}}
• Grace Medes discovers tyrosinosis, the metabolic disorder later known as Type I tyrosinemia.
• Swedish neurosurgeon Herbert Olivecrona performs the first surgical excision of an intracranial arteriovenous malformation.
• Rudolph Schindler introduces the first semi-flexible gastroscope, in Germany.{{cite journal|last1=Schäfer|first1=P. K.|last2=Sauerbruch|first2=T.|title=Rudolf Schindler (1888–1968) – 'Vater' der Gastroskopie|journal=Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie|volume=42|issue=6|pages=550–6|year=2004|doi=10.1055/s-2004-813178|pmid=15190453}}{{Dead link|date=February 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• Commencement of the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor African-American sharecroppers in Alabama without their informed consent.{{cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm|title=The Tuskegee Timeline|publisher=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|date=2011-06-15|accessdate=2011-09-30}}
• First published use of the term Medical genetics, in an article by Madge Thurlow Macklin.{{cite book|first=Peter S.|last=Harper|title=A Short History of Medical Genetics|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-19-518750-2|page=281}}
• Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus

• Albert Szent-Györgyi and Charles Glen King identify ascorbic acid as an anti-scorbutic.
• December 25 – IG Farben file a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide drug, Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730; which will be marketed as Prontosil), following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic at the conglomerate's Bayer laboratories.{{cite book|last=Lesch|first=J. E.|title=The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs Transformed Medicine|chapter=Prontosil|pages=51–61|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-19-518775-5}}

• April 14 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, utilising a Cockcroft–Walton generator at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge (England), focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.{{Cite journal|last1=Cockcroft|first1=John|last2=Walton|first2=Ernest|date=April 1932|title=Disintegration of Lithium by Swift Protons|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/129649a0|journal=Nature|volume=129|issue=649|page=649|doi=10.1038/129649a0|bibcode=1932Natur.129..649C}}{{cite book|last1=Hartcup|first1=Guy|last2=Allibone|first2=T. E.|author-link2=Thomas Allibone|title=Cockcroft and the Atom|location=Bristol|publisher=Hilger|year=1984|isbn=978-0-85274-759-9|oclc=12666364}}
• 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.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/alaska.edu/gakonahaarpoon/operations-news|title=Operations News|work=Gakona HAARPoon|location=Alaska|date=2017-02-19|accessdate=2022-11-16}}
• May 10 – James Chadwick, working at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, reports the existence of the neutron.{{cite journal|first=J.|last=Chadwick|title=Possible Existence of a Neutron|journal=Nature|volume=129|page=312|date=1932-02-27|issue=3252|doi=10.1038/129312a0|bibcode=1932Natur.129Q.312C|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|title=The Existence of the Neutron|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1932.0112|first=J.|last=Chadwick|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society|volume=A136|issue=830|date=1932-06-01|pages=692–708|doi=10.1098/rspa.1932.0112|doi-access=free|bibcode=1932RSPSA.136..692C|accessdate=2025-06-15}} Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept of isospin.{{cite journal|first=W.|last=Heisenberg|year=1932|title=Über den Bau der Atomkerne|journal=Zeitschrift für Physik|volume=77|issue=1–2|pages=1–11|doi=10.1007/BF01342433|bibcode=1932ZPhy...77....1H |s2cid=186218053}}
• August 2 – The positron is observed by Carl Anderson.{{cite journal|first=Carl D.|last=Anderson|year=1932|title=The Apparent Existence of Easily Deflectable Positives|jstor=1658257|journal=Science|volume=76|issue=1967|pages=238–9|doi=10.1126/science.76.1967.238|pmid=17731542|bibcode=1932Sci....76..238A}}
• 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.{{cite journal|last1=Kennedy|first1=Roy J.|last2=Thorndike|first2=Edward M.|year=1932|title=Experimental Establishment of the Relativity of Time|journal=Physical Review|volume=42|issue=3|pages=400–418|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.42.400|bibcode=1932PhRv...42..400K}}
• John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics in Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik.
• Zero-length springs are invented, revolutionizing seismometers and gravimeters.

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Werner Karl Heisenberg
• Chemistry – Irving Langmuir
• Medicine – Sir Charles Sherrington, Edgar Adrian

• January 16 – Dian Fossey (murdered 1985), American primatologist.
• February 7 – Alfred Worden (died 2020), American astronaut.
• February 10 – Robert Taylor (died 2017), American computer scientist.
• March 10 – Udupi Ramachandra Rao (died 2017), Indian space scientist.
• March 14 – Joseph Bryan Nelson (died 2015), British 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 – Luc Montagnier (died 2022), French virologist and joint recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the 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 – Terence English, South African-born cardiac surgeon.
• October 13 – John G. Thompson, American mathematician.
• November 6 – François Englert, Belgian 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.

• February 29 – George Claridge Druce (born 1850), English botanist.
• March 14 – George Eastman (born 1854), American photography pioneer (suicide).
• April 3 – Wilhelm Ostwald (born 1853), Baltic German chemist.
• April 20 – Giuseppe Peano (born 1858), Italian mathematician.
• May 29 – Cuthbert Christy (born 1863), English medical investigator, zoologist and explorer.
• June 21 – Major Taylor (born 1878), African American racing cyclist.
• July 9 – King Camp Gillette (born 1855), American 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 Ronald Ross (born 1857), British physiologist.
• November 12 – Sir Dugald Clerk (born 1854), Scottish-born mechanical engineer.

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1930s in science