1940 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1940|science}}

{{Science year nav|1940}}

The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biochemistry

Biology

Chemistry

  • February 27 – The radioactive isotope carbon-14 is discovered by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite journal|last=Kamen|first=Martin D.|year=1963|title=Early History of Carbon-14: Discovery of this supremely important tracer was expected in the physical sense but not in the chemical sense|journal=Science|volume=140|issue=3567|pages=584–590|doi=10.1126/science.140.3567.584|jstor=1710512|pmid=17737092|bibcode=1963Sci...140..584K }}
  • May 15 – Women's stockings made of nylon are first placed on sale across the United States.{{cite web|title=the history of nylon |url=http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 |first=L. |last=Trossarelli |publisher=Club Alpino Italiano, Centro Studi Materiali e Tecniche |year=2010 |accessdate=2012-02-28 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425044410/http://www.caimateriali.org/index.php?id=32 |archivedate=2012-04-25 |url-status=live }}
  • December 14 – Plutonium is first synthesized by a team led by Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan at the University of California, Berkeley by bombarding uranium-238 with deuterons.
  • The radioactive element Astatine is synthesized by Dale R. Corson, Kenneth Ross MacKenzie and Emilio Segrè at the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite journal|title=Artificially Radioactive Element 85|first1=D. R.|last1=Corson|first2=K. R.|last2=MacKenzie|first3=E.|last3=Segrè|journal=Physical Review|volume=58|pages=672–678|year=1940|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.58.672|issue=8|bibcode=1940PhRv...58..672C}}
  • Neptunium, the first transuranic element, is synthesized by Edwin McMillan and Philip H. Abelson at the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite journal|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.57.1185.2|title=Radioactive Element 93|year=1940|last1=Mcmillan|first1=Edwin|journal=Physical Review|volume=57|pages=1185–6|last2=Abelson|first2=Philip Hauge|issue=12|bibcode=1940PhRv...57.1185M|doi-access=free}}
  • Louis Plack Hammett coins the term Physical organic chemistry when he uses it as the title of a textbook published in New York.{{cite journal|last=Hammond|first=George S.|authorlink=George S. Hammond|title=Physical organic chemistry after 50 years: It has changed, but is it still there?|url=http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1997/pdf/6909x1919.pdf|journal=Pure and Applied Chemistry|publisher=IUPAC|year=1997|volume=69|issue=9|pages=1919–22|accessdate=2014-01-22|doi=10.1351/pac199769091919|s2cid=53723796}}
  • Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson published the standard text The Chemical Composition of Foods.{{cite ODNB|first=Roger|last=Whitehead|title=Widdowson, Elsie May (1906–2000)|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74313|accessdate=2011-08-10|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74313}}

Computer science

  • January 8 – In the history of computing hardware, Bell Labs' Complex Number Computer, a relay-based calculator for complex numbers, is completed under the direction of George Stibitz in New York City.{{Ref patent|country=US|number=2668661|status=patent|title=Complex Computer|gdate=1954-02-09|assign1=American Telephone & Telegraph}}
  • May–August – Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman at the United Kingdom Government Code and Cypher School, Bletchley Park, design the British Bombes to help decrypt Wehrmacht Enigma machine signals.{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Michael|authorlink=Michael Smith (newspaper reporter)|title=Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park|edition=rev.|series=Pan Grand Strategy Series|year=2007|publisher=Pan Macmillan|location=London|isbn=978-0-330-41929-1}}
  • September 9 – George Stibitz first demonstrates remote operation of a computer, using a modified teletype working over telegraph lines between an American Mathematical Society conference at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and the Complex Number Computer in New York.{{cite book|last=Ritchie|first=David|date=1986|chapter=George Stibitz and the Bell Computers|title=The Computer Pioneers|url=https://archive.org/details/computerpioneers00ritc|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/computerpioneers00ritc/page/39 39]|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=067152397X}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AsvSBQAAQBAJ&q=%22Complex%20computer%22%201939&pg=PA481|title=History of Computing in the Twentieth Century|last=Metropolis|first=Nicholas|year=2014|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9781483296685|page=481}}{{cite web|last1=Dalakov|first1=Georgi|title=Relay computers of George Stibitz|url=http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Relays/Stibitz.html|website=History of Computers: Hardware, Software, Internet|accessdate=2015-03-30}}

Exploration

  • December – Finn Ronne and Carl Eklund of the United States Antarctic Service determine that Alexander I Land is an island.{{gnis|id=236|type=antarid}}{{cite journal|last=Siple|first=Paul|authorlink=Paul Siple|title=Obituary: Carl R. Eklund, 1909-1962|journal=Arctic|volume=16|year=1963|pages=147–148|url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic16-2-147.pdf|publisher=Arctic Institute of North America|accessdate=2013-01-19| issue=2 | doi=10.14430/arctic3531}}

Mathematics

Medicine

Metallurgy

Physics

Technology

Other events

Births

Deaths

References