1952 in science

• August 1 – Around 9 o'clock AM Pacific Time Zone, the San Benedicto rock wren goes extinct as its island home is smothered in a massive volcanic eruption.
• August 14 – Alan Turing's paper "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" is published, putting forward a reaction–diffusion hypothesis of pattern formation,{{cite journal|last=Turing|first=A. M.|title=The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|volume=237|issue=641|date=14 August 1952|pages=37–72|jstor=92463|doi=10.1098/rstb.1952.0012|bibcode=1952RSPTB.237...37T|doi-access=free}} Submitted November 1951. considered a seminal piece of work in morphogenesis.{{cite journal|title=Control Mechanism For Biological Pattern Formation Decoded|journal=ScienceDaily|date=30 November 2006}}{{cite web|url=http://www.swintons.net/deodands/archives/000087.html |title=Turing's Last, Lost Work |publisher=Swintons |access-date=28 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030823032620/http://www.swintons.net/deodands/archives/000087.html |archive-date=23 August 2003 }} ()
• August 28 – Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley publish the Hodgkin–Huxley model of action potentials in neurons of the squid giant axon.{{cite journal|last1=Hodgkin|first1=A. L.|last2=Huxley|first2=A. F.|year=1952|title=A Quantitative Description of Membrane Current and its Application to Conduction and Excitation in Nerve|journal=The Journal of Physiology|volume=117|pages=500–544|pmid=12991237|pmc=1392413|issue=4|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764}}
• September 20 – Publication of the paper on the Hershey–Chase experiment showing conclusively that DNA, not protein, is the genetic material of bacteriophages.{{cite journal|last1=Hershey|first1=A. D.|first2=Martha|last2=Chase|title=Independent Functions of Viral Protein and Nucleic Acid in Growth of Bacteriophage |journal=The Journal of General Physiology|volume=36|issue=1|pages=39–56|year=1952|doi=10.1085/jgp.36.1.39|pmid=12981234|pmc=2147348}}
• October – Danish virologist Preben von Magnus publishes his observation of the von Magnus phenomenon producing defective interfering particles.{{cite journal|last1=Gard|first1=S.|last2=von Magnus|first2=P.|last3=Svedmyr|first3=A.|last4=Birch-Andersen|first4=A.|title=Studies on the sedimentation of influenza virus|journal=Archiv für die gesamte Virusforschung|year=1952|volume=4|issue=5|pages=591–611|doi=10.1007/BF01242026|pmid=14953289|s2cid=21838623}}
• Biochemists Jack Gross and Rosalind Pitt-Rivers discover the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine.{{cite journal|last1=Gross|first1=J.|last2=Pitt-Rivers|first2=R.|year=1952|title=The Identification of 3:5:3'-L-Triiodothyronine in Human Plasma|journal=The Lancet|volume=259|issue=6705|pages=439–441|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(52)91952-1|pmid=14898765}}
• The Braeburn apple cultivar is discovered as a chance seedling in New Zealand.
• Last confirmed sighting of the Caribbean monk seal, at Serranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Nicaragua.{{cite book|last=Rice|first=D|title=Caribbean monk seal (Monachus tropicalis). In Seals. Proceedings of working meeting of seal specialists on threatened and depleted seals of the world, held under the auspices of the Survival Service Commission of the IUCN, 18–19 August|year=1973|publisher=Univ. Guelph, IUCN Publ, Suppl. paper|location=Ontario, Canada. Morges, Switzerland}}

• Soviet scientists L. V. Radushkevich and V. M. Lukyanovich publish images of carbon nanotubes.{{cite journal|last=Радушкевич|first=Л. В.|year=1952|script-title=ru:О Структуре Углерода, Образующегося При Термическом Разложении Окиси Углерода На Железном Контакте|journal=Журнал Физической Химии|volume=26|pages=88–95|language=ru}}

• The first autocode and its compiler are developed by Alick Glennie for the Manchester Mark 1 computer, considered as the first working high-level compiled programming language.{{cite journal|last1=Knuth|first1=Donald E.|last2=Pardo|first2=Luis Trabb|title=Early development of programming languages|journal=Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology|volume=7|pages=419–493}}

• Discovery by Derek J. de Solla Price of a lost medieval scientific work entitled Equatorie of the Planetis, initially attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer.

• John Forbes Nash, Jr. produces groundbreaking work in the area of real algebraic geometry.{{cite journal|first=J. F.|last=Nash|title=Real algebraic manifolds|journal=Annals of Mathematics|year=1952|pages=405–21|volume=56|issue=3|mr=0050928|doi=10.2307/1969649|jstor=1969649}}.{{citation|title=Proceedings|author=International Congress of Mathematicians|location=Providence|publisher=American Mathematical Society|year=1952|volume=2|pages=516–17}}
• The Bradley–Terry model in probability theory is presented.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.2307/2334029| jstor = 2334029| title = Rank Analysis of Incomplete Block Designs: I. The Method of Paired Comparisons| journal = Biometrika| volume = 39| issue = 3/4| pages = 324| year = 1952| last1 = Bradley | first1 = Ralph Allan | last2 = Terry | first2 = Milton E. }}

• February 6 – A mechanical heart is used for the first time in a human patient, in the United States.{{cite web|url=https://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/index.php/1952,_The_First_Mechanical_Heart_Pump |title=The First Mechanical Heart Pump |publisher=GeneralMotors.com |access-date=2009-12-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711102803/http://history.gmheritagecenter.com/wiki/index.php/1952%2C_The_First_Mechanical_Heart_Pump |archive-date=July 11, 2011 }}
• March 1 – The British Psychological Society is founded.
• September 2 – The first successful operation to correct a cardiac shunt ("hole in the heart") is performed by Drs F. John Lewis and C. Walton Lillehei on a 5-year-old girl in the United States utilising the induced hypothermia technique developed by Wilfred Gordon "Bill" Bigelow.
• November – Royal College of General Practitioners established in the United Kingdom.
• November 20 – The first successful sex reassignment surgery is performed in Copenhagen, making George Jorgensen Jr. become Christine Jorgensen.
• December 14 – The first successful surgical separation of conjoined twins is conducted in Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio.
• December – Robert Gwyn Macfarlane and colleagues publish the first identification of Haemophilia B.{{cite journal|author1=Biggs, R. |author2=Douglas, A. S. |author3=MacFarlane, R. G. |author4=Dacie, J. V. |author5=Pitney, W. R. |author6=Merskey, C. |author7=O'Brien, J. R. |title=Christmas disease: a condition previously mistaken for haemophilia|journal=British Medical Journal|volume=2|issue=4799|pages=1378–82|year=1952|pmid=12997790|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.4799.1378|pmc=2022306}}
• American obstetrical anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar devises the Apgar score as a simple replicable method of quickly and summarily assessing the health of babies immediately after childbirth.{{cite journal|last=Apgar|first=Virginia|url=http://apgar.net/virginia/Apgar_Paper.html|title=A proposal for a new method of evaluation of the newborn infant|journal= Current Researches in Anesthesia & Analgesia|year=1953|volume=32|issue=4|pages=260–267|pmid=13083014 |access-date=2013-12-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130123020/http://apgar.net/virginia/Apgar_Paper.html|archive-date=2012-11-30|url-status=dead|doi=10.1213/00000539-195301000-00041}}{{cite journal|last1=Finster|first1=M.|last2=Wood|first2=M.|s2cid=19697516|title=The Apgar score has survived the test of time|journal=Anesthesiology|date=May 2005|volume=102|issue=4|pages=855–857|pmid=15791116|doi=10.1097/00000542-200504000-00022|doi-access=free}}
• American orthopedic surgeon Armin Klein publishes Klein's line as a diagnostic tool.
• Jean Delay, head of psychiatry at Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris, with Jean-François Buisson, reports the antidepressant effect of isoniazid.{{cite book|last=Healy|first=David|title=The Psychopharmacologists: Interviews|year=1996|publisher=Chapman and Hall|location=London|isbn=978-1-86036-008-4|page=8}}

• November 1 – Nuclear testing: Operation Ivy – The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen device, codenamed "Ivy Mike" ["m" for megaton], at Eniwetok island in the Bikini Atoll located in the Pacific Ocean.{{cite web|url=http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0824719.html|title=Hydrogen Bomb|publisher=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia|access-date=2009-12-29| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115033200/http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0824719.html| archive-date=15 January 2010 | url-status=live}} The elements einsteinium and fermium are discovered in the fallout.{{cite journal|first=Albert|last=Ghiorso|author-link=Albert Ghiorso|year=2003|title=Einsteinium and Fermium|journal=Chemical & Engineering News|url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/einsteiniumfermium.html|volume=81|issue=36|pages=174–175|access-date=2012-02-08|doi=10.1021/cen-v081n036.p174}}
• Geoffrey Dummer proposes the integrated circuit.{{cite book|title=The Hutchinson Factfinder|publisher=Helicon|year=1999|isbn=978-1-85986-000-7}}

• September 30 – The Cinerama widescreen film system, developed by Fred Waller, debuts with the movie This Is Cinerama at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.
• October 7 – The barcode is patented in the United States by Norman J. Woodland and Bernard Silver,{{cite web |last1=Woodland |first1=Norman J. |last2=Bernard |first2=Silver |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2612994 |title=Classifying Apparatus And Method |id=U.S. Patent 2,612,994 }} though it does not make its first appearance in an American shop until 1974.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19849141|title=Barcode birthday: 60 years since patent|first=Zoe|last=Kleinman|work=BBC News|date=2012-10-07|access-date=2013-06-17}}

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Felix Bloch, Edward Mills Purcell
• Chemistry – Archer John Porter Martin, Richard Laurence Millington Synge
• Medicine – Selman Abraham Waksman

• February 2 – Ralph Merkle, American computer scientist, co-inventor of public-key cryptography.
• February 15 – Frances Ashcroft, English geneticist.
• February 19 – Marcia McNutt, American geophysicist, science editor, and president of the National Academy of Sciences.
• February 28 – Simon P. Norton (died 2019), English mathematician, co-discoverer of 'monstrous moonshine'.
• March 24 – Reinhard Genzel, German astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, co-discovererer of black holes.
• March 26 – Gary Ruvkun, American molecular biologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• July 15 – Ann Dowling, English mechanical engineer.
• August 14 – Peter Fonagy, Hungarian-born British psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist.
• August 25 – Charles M. Rice, American virologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, co-discovererer of the hepatitis C virus.
• Venki Ramakrishnan, Indian-born American-British structural biologist.

• March 5 – Sir Charles Sherrington (born 1857), English neurophysiologist and bacteriologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932.
• April 2 – Bernard Lyot (born 1897), French astronomer.
• April 8 – Tadeusz Estreicher (born 1871), Polish chemist.
• June 17 – Jack Parsons (born 1914), American rocket engineer and occultist.
• September 5 – Hermann Stieve (born 1886), German anatomist and histologist.
• November 2 – Chaim Weizmann (born 1874), Belarusian-born chemist, first President of Israel.
• November 24 – André Rochon-Duvigneaud (born 1863), French ophthalmologist.
• December 4 – Karen Horney (born 1885), German American psychoanalyst.
• December 19 – Colonel Sir Charles Arden-Close (born 1865), British cartographer.

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1950s in science