1973 in science

• March 7 – Comet Kohoutek is discovered
• April 6 – Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft
• May 14 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
• Solar eclipse of June 30, 1973 – Very long total solar eclipse visible in NE South America, the Atlantic, and central Africa. During the entire Second Millennium, only seven total solar eclipses exceed seven minutes of totality; this is the last. Observers aboard a Concorde jet are able to stretch totality to about 74 minutes by flying along the path of the moon's umbra.
• July 25 – Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
• November 3 – Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury (on March 29, 1974, it becomes the first space probe to reach that planet); it will be the first space flight to use gravity assist.
• December 3 – Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
• December 7 – The "Big Ear" at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory begins a full-time search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) radio survey, running continuously until 1995.

• December 28 – Endangered Species Act signed into law in the United States.

• Waldo R. Tobler introduces the Tobler hyperelliptical projection.

• A successful method of Vitamin B₁₂ total synthesis is reported by the groups of Robert Burns Woodward and Albert Eschenmoser.{{cite journal|title=The Total Synthesis of Vitamin B₁₂|first=R. B.|last=Woodward|journal=Pure and Applied Chemistry|year=1973|volume=33|issue=1|pages=145–178|url=http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/33/1/0145/|doi=10.1351/pac197333010145|accessdate=2012-01-13|pmid=4684454|s2cid=30641959 |doi-access=free}}{{cite book|author1=Nicolaou, K. C. |author2=Sorensen, E. J. |year=1996|title=Classics in Total Synthesis: Targets, Strategies, Methods|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-3-527-29231-8}}
• Akira Endo identifies the first statin, mevastatin.{{cite journal|first=Akira|last=Endo|author2=Kuroda M.|author3= Tsujita Y.|title=ML-236A, ML-236B, and ML-236C, new inhibitors of cholesterogenesis produced by Penicillium citrinium|journal=Journal of Antibiotics|date=December 1976| volume=29|issue=12|pages=1346–8|pmid=1010803|doi=10.7164/antibiotics.29.1346|doi-access=free}}

• March 1 – Xerox PARC releases the Xerox Alto, the first computer designed to support an operating system based on a graphical user interface.
• September – The TV Typewriter appears on the cover of Radio-Electronics. Designed by Don Lancaster, it is a video terminal that can display two pages of 16 lines of 32 upper case characters on a standard television set.
• October – A form of the suffix automaton is introduced by Peter Weiner.{{Cite Q|Q29541479|ref={{harvid|Weiner|1973}}}}
• November 21 – The sci-fi movie Westworld is the first feature film to use digital image processing.

• October – Asymmetric key algorithms for public-key cryptography developed by James H. Ellis, Clifford Cocks and Malcolm J. Williamson at the United Kingdom Government Communications Headquarters.Disclosed 1997. https://web.archive.org/web/20100519084635/http://www.gchq.gov.uk/history/pke.html

• Derek Ager publishes The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record.

• May 5–July 28 – BBC Television series The Ascent of Man, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski, first airs; there is also an accompanying bestselling book.

• Fischer Black and Myron Scholes first articulate the Black–Scholes mathematical model used in the financial field containing certain derivative investment instruments.{{cite journal|title=The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities|last1=Black|first1=Fischer|first2=Myron|last2=Scholes|journal=Journal of Political Economy|publisher=University of Chicago Press|date=May–June 1973|volume=81|issue=3|pages=637–654|doi=10.1086/260062|jstor=1831029|s2cid=154552078 }}
• Jürgen Stückrad and Wolfgang Vogel introduce the Buchsbaum ring.{{cite journal|last1=Stückrad|first1=Jürgen|last2=Vogel|first2=Wolfgang|title=Eine Verallgemeinerung der Cohen-Macaulay Ringe und Anwendungen auf ein Problem der Multiplizitätstheorie|url=http://projecteuclid.org/euclid.kjm/1250523322|mr=0335504|year=1973|journal=Journal of Mathematics of Kyoto University|issn=0023-608X|volume=13|pages=513–528}}{{cite book|last1=Stückrad|first1=Jürgen|last2=Vogel|first2=Wolfgang|title=Buchsbaum rings and applications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xBTvAAAAMAAJ|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=Berlin; New York|isbn=978-3-540-16844-7|mr=881220|year=1986}}

• August – Production of monoclonal antibodies involving human–mouse hybrid cells is first described by Jerrold Schwaber.{{cite journal|author=Schwaber, J.|author2=Cohen, E. P.|title=Human x mouse somatic cell hybrid clone secreting immunoglobulins of both parental types|journal=Nature|volume=244|issue=5416|pages=444–7|year=1973|pmid=4200460|doi=10.1038/244444a0|s2cid=4171375}}
• The term "dendritic cell" is coined by Ralph M. Steinman working with Zanvil A. Cohn.{{cite journal|last1=Steinman|first1=R. M.|last2=Cohn|first2=Z. A.|title=Identification of a Novel Cell Type in Peripheral Lymphoid Organs of Mice: I. Morphology, Quantitation, Tissue Distribution|journal=Journal of Experimental Medicine|volume=137|issue=5|pages=1142–62|year=1973|pmid=4573839|doi=10.1084/jem.137.5.1142|pmc=2139237}}
• The term "Norrmalmstorgssyndromet", translated as Stockholm syndrome, is coined by Nils Bejerot.

• David Rosenhan publishes the results of his experiment into the validity of psychiatric diagnosis.{{cite journal|last=Rosenhan|first=D. L.|title=On being sane in insane places|journal=Science|location=New York|volume=179|issue=4070|pages=250–8|date=January 1973|pmid=4683124|doi=10.1126/science.179.4070.250|url=http://web.cocc.edu/lminorevans/on_being_sane_in_insane_places.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041117175255/http://web.cocc.edu/lminorevans/on_being_sane_in_insane_places.htm|archivedate=2004-11-17|bibcode = 1973Sci...179..250R |s2cid=15089027 |url-access=subscription}}
• The American Psychiatric Association publishes the 1st edition of its Principles of Medical Ethics, incorporating the 'Goldwater rule' (that it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion on an individual in the public eye without an examination and consent).{{cite journal|title=The Ethics of APA's Goldwater Rule|last1=Kroll|first1=Jerome|last2=Pouncey|first2=Claire|journal=Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law|year=2016|volume=44|issue=2|pages=226–235|pmid=27236179|url=http://www.jaapl.org/content/44/2/226.long|issn=1093-6793}}
• December 15 – The American Psychiatric Association removes the definition of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the 2nd edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II).

• April 2 – The LexisNexis computerized legal research service begins.
• April 3 – The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City.{{cite web|title=First Mobile Phone Call Was Placed Exactly 40 Years Ago|url=http://mashable.com/2013/04/03/first-mobile-phone-call/|publisher=Mashable|year=2013|accessdate=2013-04-03}}
• June 4 – A United States patent for the Docutel automated teller machine is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.
• Ichiro Kato, Waseda University, develops the world's first full-scale humanoid robot, Wabot-1.{{cite web|title=History of Industrial Robots|url=http://www.ifr.org/uploads/media/History_of_Industrial_Robots_online_brochure_by_IFR_2012.pdf|publisher=International Federation of Robotics|year=2012|accessdate=2013-04-03|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224213437/http://www.ifr.org/uploads/media/History_of_Industrial_Robots_online_brochure_by_IFR_2012.pdf|archivedate=2012-12-24}}

• March 6 – The Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded as the Montenegrin Society for Science and Arts (Crnogorsko društvo za nauku i umjetnost), elects its first members.{{cite web|title=Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (MASA)|url=http://www.interacademies.net/Academies/ByRegion/SouthEasternEurope/Montenegro/13024.aspx|publisher=IAP|year=2013|accessdate=2015-01-09|archive-date=2015-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109162532/http://www.interacademies.net/Academies/ByRegion/SouthEasternEurope/Montenegro/13024.aspx|url-status=dead}}

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever, Brian David Josephson
• Chemistry – Ernst Otto Fischer, Geoffrey Wilkinson
• Medicine – Karl Von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen
• Turing Award – Charles W. Bachman

• May 19 – Alice Roberts, English evolutionary biologist, biological anthropologist and science and archaeology popularizer
• October 5 – Cédric Villani, French mathematician and politician
• November 19 – Nim Chimpsky (d. 2000), chimpanzee
• December 5 – Luboš Motl, Czech theoretical physicist

• February 11 – J. Hans D. Jensen (b. 1907), German nuclear physicist
• February 20 – Alf Lysholm (b. 1893), Swedish mechanical engineer.
• March 12 – David Lack (b. 1910), English ornithologist
• March 14 – Howard H. Aiken (b. 1900), American computing pioneer
• March 28 – C. Doris Hellman (b. 1910), American historian of science
• March 30 – William Justin Kroll (b. 1889), Luxembourgish metallurgist
• May 21 – Grigore Moisil (b. 1906), Romanian mathematician, died in Canada
• July 1 – Laurens Hammond (b. 1895), American inventor
• August 9 – Preben von Magnus (b. 1912), Danish virologist
• August 12 – Walter Rudolf Hess (b. 1881), Swiss physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• August 16 – Selman Waksman (b. 1888), Ukrainian-born Jewish-American biochemist and microbiologist
• November 25 – Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (b. 1887), Romanian engineer
• December 10 – Wolf V. Vishniac (b. 1922), American microbiologist
• December 17 – Charles Greeley Abbot (b. 1872), American astrophysicist

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1970s in science