1949 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1949|science}}

{{Science year nav|1949}}

The year 1949 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

Chemistry

  • Radiocarbon dating technique discovered by Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago—work for which Libby will receive the Nobel Prize in 1960.
  • A group including Dorothy Hodgkin publish the three-dimensional molecular structure of penicillin, demonstrating that it contains a β-lactam ring.{{cite book|author1=Crowfoot, D. |author2=Bunn, Charles W. |author3=Rogers-Low, Barbara W. |author4=Turner-Jones, Annette |year=1949|chapter=X-ray crystallographic investigation of the structure of penicillin|editor1=Clarke, H. T. |editor2=Johnson, J. R. |editor3=Robinson, R. |title=Chemistry of Penicillin|publisher=Princeton University Press|pages=310–367}}{{cite journal|first=Jenny P.|last=Glusker|title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994)|journal=Protein Science|year=1994|volume=3|issue=12|pages=2465–2469|doi=10.1002/pro.5560031233|pmid=7757003|pmc=2142778}}

Computer science

Earth sciences

  • August 5 – Ambato earthquake in Ecuador, measuring 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale.{{cite web|url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/today/index.php?month=8&day=5&submit=View+Date |title=Today in Earthquake History: August 5 |date=2009-12-18 |accessdate=2011-07-19 |publisher=United States Geological Survey |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608184553/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/today/index.php?month=8&day=5&submit=View%2BDate |archivedate=8 June 2011 |url-status=live }}
  • Patomskiy crater in Siberia is discovered by Russian geologist Vadim Kolpakov.

History of science

Mathematics

Medicine

Meteorology

Philosophy

Physics

  • Freeman Dyson demonstrates the equivalence of the formulations of quantum electrodynamics existing at this time,{{cite journal|first=F. J.|last=Dyson|title=The radiation theories of Tomonaga, Schwinger, and Feynman|journal=Physical Review|volume=75|issue=3|pages=486–502|year=1949|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.75.486|bibcode=1949PhRv...75..486D|doi-access=free}} incidentally inventing the Dyson series.{{cite journal|first=F. J.|last=Dyson|title=The S matrix in quantum electrodynamics|journal=Physical Review|volume=75|issue=11|pages=1736–1755|year=1949|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.75.1736|bibcode=1949PhRv...75.1736D}}
  • The Lanczos tensor is introduced in general relativity by Cornelius Lanczos.{{cite journal|first=Cornelius|last=Lanczos|title=Lagrangian Multiplier and Riemannian Spaces|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|volume=21|issue=3|year=1949|pages=497–502|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.21.497|bibcode=1949RvMP...21..497L |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1062657/files/RevModPhys.21.497.pdf|doi-access=free}}
  • Pauli–Villars regularization is first published.{{cite journal|last1=Pauli|first1=W.|authorlink1=Wolfgang Pauli|last2=Villars|first2=F.|authorlink2=Felix Villars|title=On the Invariant Regularization in Relativistic Quantum Theory|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|volume=21|issue=3|pages=434–444|year=1949|bibcode=1949RvMP...21..434P|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.21.434|doi-access=free}}

Zoology

  • J. B. S. Haldane proposes the Darwin as a unit of evolutionary change.{{cite journal|first=J. B. S.|last=Haldane|year=1949|jstor=2405451|title=Suggestions as to quantitative measurement of rates of evolution|journal=Evolution|volume=3|issue=1|pages=51–56|doi=10.1111/j.1558-5646.1949.tb00004.x|doi-access=free}}
  • Konrad Lorenz publishes King Solomon's Ring (Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Vögeln und den Fischen).

Awards

Births

Deaths

References

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1940s in science