1957 in science

Image:Sputnik 1.jpg]]

• October 4 – Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, by an R-7 Semyorka rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
• November 3 – Launch of Sputnik 2, with a dog called Laika on board, the first animal sent into orbit. There is no technology available to return it to Earth.
• December 6 – The United States attempts launch of Vanguard TV3 which fails after just two seconds in the air.
• Project Orion begins, a U.S. program to build a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions.
• Wilhelm Gliese publishes the first Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars.{{cite journal|title=Katalog der Sterne näher ALS 20 Parsek für 1950.0|journal=Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg Mitteilungen Serie A|volume=8|pages=1|last=Gliese|first=W.|publisher=Astronomischen Rechen-Institut|location=Heidelberg|year=1957|bibcode=1957MiABA...8....1G}}

• Dopamine is first identified in the human brain by Katharine Montagu.
• The structure of myoglobin is determined (using x-ray crystallography) by John Kendrew and colleagues in England.{{cite journal|title=A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-Ray Analysis|author1=Kendrew, J. C.|author2=Bodo, G.|author3=Dintzis, H. M.|author4=Parrish, R. G.|author5=Wyckoff, H.|author6=Phillips, D. C.|journal=Nature|date=March 1958|volume=181|issue=4610|pages=662–6|doi=10.1038/181662a0|pmid=13517261|bibcode=1958Natur.181..662K|s2cid=4162786}}
• The discovery of Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase, the first antiporter enzyme identified, is published by Jens Christian Skou of Aarhus University.{{cite journal|last=Skou|first=J. Chr.|title=The Influence of Some Cations on an Adenosine Triphosphatase from Peripheral Nerves|journal=Biochimica et Biophysica Acta|volume=23|issue=2|pages=394–401|date=February 1957|pmid=13412736|doi=10.1016/0006-3002(57)90343-8|s2cid=32516710 }}{{cite journal|last=Clausen|first=Torben|date=August 2007|title=J.C. Skou identified Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase pump – a breakthrough and its significance|journal=Ugeskrift for Læger|volume=169|issue=35|page=2897|language=da|pmid=17878005}}
• The Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium is first cultured (in the yolk sacs of eggs) by Tang Feifan and colleagues.{{cite journal|author1=Darougar, S. |author2=Jones, B. R. |author3=Kinnison, J. R. |author4=Vaughan-Jackson, J. D. |author5=Dunlop, E. M. |title=Chlamydial infection: advances in the diagnostic isolation of Chlamydia, including TRIC agent, from the eye, genital tract, and rectum|journal=British Journal of Venereal Diseases|date=December 1972|volume=48|issue=6|pages=416–420|doi=10.1136/sti.48.6.416|pmid=4651177|pmc=1048360}} {{cite journal|author1=Tang, F. F. |author2=Chang, H. L. |author3=Huang, Y. T. |author4=Wang, K. C. |title=Studies on the etiology of trachoma with special reference to isolation of the virus in chick embryo|journal=Chinese Medical Journal|location=Beijing|date=June 1957|volume=75|issue=6|pages=429–47|pmid=13461224 }} {{cite journal|author1=Tang, F. F. |author2=Huang, Y. T. |author3=Chang, H. L. |author4=Wong, K. C. |title=Isolation of trachoma virus in chick embryo|journal=Journal of Hygiene, Epidemiology, Microbiology, and Immunology|location=Prague|year=1957|volume=1|issue=2|pages=109–20|pmid=13502539 }}

• Costin Nenițescu synthesizes cyclobutadiene.{{cite journal|title=Romanian Inventions|journal=The Reminder|issue=46|date=June 1983|page=7 (supplement)}}

• April – IBM delivers the first compiler for the FORTRAN scientific programming language. It becomes the most widely used computer language for technical work.
• Robert C. Prim independently rediscovers Prim's algorithm. It was first discovered in 1930 by Vojtěch Jarník and independently rediscovered again by Edsger Dijkstra in 1959.

• Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station established.

• Karl Prachar publishes a key text on the distribution of prime numbers, Primzahlverteilung.Springer Verlag, 1957.

• June 27 – A report by the Medical Research Council (UK) reveals evidence to support a link between tobacco smoking and lung cancer.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2956000/2956618.stm|title=Smoking 'causes lung cancer'|publisher=BBC News|access-date=2007-12-04|date=1957-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110015604/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/27/newsid_2956000/2956618.stm|archive-date=2007-11-10|url-status=live}}
• October 1 – The drug Thalidomide is launched as a sedative by Grünenthal GmbH.{{cite journal|author=Moghe, Vijay V.|year=2008|title=Thalidomide|journal=Bombay Hospital Journal|volume=50|issue=3|page=446|url=http://www.bhj.org/journal/2008_5003_july/download/page-472-476.pdf|access-date=2009-10-25|display-authors=etal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722164029/http://www.bhj.org/journal/2008_5003_july/download/page-472-476.pdf|archive-date=2011-07-22|url-status=dead}}
• October 11 – An article by Fred Kummerow suggests a link between trans fats and heart disease.{{cite journal|title=Occurrence of trans Fatty Acids in Human Tissue|journal=Science|date=1957-10-11|volume=126|issue=3276|pages=698–699|doi=10.1126/science.126.3276.698-a|pmid=13467268|bibcode=1957Sci...126..698J|last1=Johnston|first1=P. V.|last2=Johnson|first2=O. C.|last3=Kummerow|first3=F. A.|s2cid=6725282 }}
• Hashimoto's thyroiditis is recognised as an autoimmune disease, the first identified as organ-specific.{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Elaine A.|last2=Wilkinson|first2=Samantha|title=The Promise of Low Dose Naltrexone Therapy: Potential Benefits in Cancer, Autoimmune, Neurological and Infectious Disorders|date=2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786452583|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bkZ9dWPrz2QC&pg=PA30}}

• Charnia is first described following its discovery by schoolboy Roger Mason at a site in the Charnwood Forest of England; it is the first definitely Precambrian fossil known.{{cite journal|last=Ford|first=T. D.|author-link=Trevor D. Ford|year=1958|title=Precambrian fossils from Charnwood Forest|journal=Yorkshire Geological Society Proceedings|volume=31|pages=211–217|doi=10.1144/pygs.31.3.211|issue=3|bibcode=1958PYGS...31..211F }}

• July – Hugh Everett III publishes the first scientifically founded many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.{{cite journal|first=Hugh|last=Everett|year=1957|title='Relative state' formulation of quantum mechanics|journal=Reviews of Modern Physics|volume=29|pages=454–462|url=http://www.univer.omsk.su/omsk/Sci/Everett/paper1957.html|doi=10.1103/RevModPhys.29.454|bibcode=1957RvMP...29..454E|issue=3|access-date=2015-09-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027191052/http://www.univer.omsk.su/omsk/Sci/Everett/paper1957.html|archive-date=2011-10-27|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}
• {{lay source |template=cite encyclopedia |author=Jeffrey Barrett |entry=Everett's Relative-State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-everett/ |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}
• August – ZETA fusion reactor begins operation at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Oxfordshire.
• BCS theory of superconductivity developed by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer.
• B²FH, an astrophysics paper by the British astronomers Geoffrey Burbidge, Margaret Burbidge and Fred Hoyle and the American astronomer William Fowler, describes the synthesis of the lightest elements through nuclear processes in stars.
• Rudolf Mössbauer discovers the Mössbauer effect.{{cite journal|last=Parak|first=Fritz|date=20 October 2011|title=Rudolf L. Mössbauer (1929–2011)|journal=Nature|volume=478|issue=7369|page=325|doi=10.1038/478325a|bibcode = 2011Natur.478..325P|pmid=22012384|doi-access=free}}
• University of Liverpool cyclotron produces violation of charge conjugation symmetry.{{cite web|title=Science Places Liverpool|url=http://www.scienceplaces.org/liverpool/liverpool_list.html|year=2008|access-date=2011-03-20}}

• Harry Harlow begins maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys.

• December 2 – Reactor goes critical in Shippingport Atomic Power Station, Pennsylvania, the first commercial pressurized water reactor.
• First working prototype Wankel engine.{{cite journal|title=The Rotary Club|first=Don|last=Sherman|journal=Automobile Magazine |pages=76–79 |date=February 2008}}

• First Conference on Science and World Affairs held at Pugwash, Nova Scotia, organized by Joseph Rotblat.

• May 13 – National Polytechnical Museum established in Sofia, Bulgaria.{{cite web|url=http://www.vesti.bg/index.phtml?tid=40&oid=728970|title=Националният политехнически музей празнува рожден ден в нощта на петък, 13-и|publisher=Vesti|date=13 May 2005|access-date=9 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120121502/http://www.vesti.bg/index.phtml?tid=40|archive-date=2012-01-20|url-status=dead}}

• Nobel Prizes:
• Physics – Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee{{cite web |title=6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200713162456/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2020 |website=National Geographic News |access-date=19 January 2021 |date=19 May 2013}}
• Chemistry – Lord Alexander R Todd
• Medicine – Daniel Bovet

• April 2 – Caroline Dean, English plant scientist.
• May 11 – Lynn J. Rothschild, American evolutionary biologist, astrobiologist and synthetic biologist at NASA's Ames Research Center.
• July 12 – Rick Husband (died 2003), American astronaut.
• October 1 – Éva Tardos, Hungarian-American computer scientist, Gödel Prize laureate.
• September 11 – Julie Williams, Welsh neuropsychological geneticist.
• October 6 – Ian Jacobs, English gynaecological oncologist.
• October 21 – Wolfgang Ketterle, German winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (2001).
• November 23 – William Kaelin Jr., American winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2019).
• December 29 – Bruce Beutler, American immunologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2011).

• February 8
• John von Neumann (born 1903), Hungarian American mathematician.
• Walther Bothe (born 1891), German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1954.
• February 18 – Henry Norris Russell (born 1877), American astronomer.
• May 7 – Wilhelm Filchner (born 1877), German explorer.
• May 13 – Michael Fekete, (born 1886) Hungarian-born Israeli mathematician (died 1957)
• May 26 – Edward Hutchinson Synge (born 1890), Irish|Irish theoretical physicist.
• July 3 – Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (born 1886), German-born English physicist.
• August 16 – Irving Langmuir (born 1881), American chemist and physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1932.
• August 21 – Harald Ulrik Sverdrup (born 1888), Norwegian meteorologist and oceanographer.
• September 21 – Henry E. Warren (born 1872), American inventor.
• October 26 – Gerty Cori (born 1896), Czech American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947.
• November – Helen Boyle (born 1869), British physician and psychologist.
• November 3 – Wilhelm Reich (born 1897), Austrian American psychoanalyst.
• December 14 – Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker (born 1901), English phycologist.

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1950s in science