1978 in science

• March 2 – Vladimír Remek becomes the first Czechoslovak in space and the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States, onboard Soyuz 28.
• June 22 – James W. Christy at the United States Naval Observatory discovers Charon, the first moon of Pluto identified.
• October – It is first proposed that Janus and Epimetheus are two separate moons of Saturn sharing the same orbit.{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/0019-1035(78)90076-3|last1=Fountain|first1=J. W.|last2=Larson|first2=S. M.|year=1978|title=Saturn's ring and nearby faint satellites|journal=Icarus|volume=36|issue=1|pages=92–106|bibcode=1978Icar...36...92F}}

• February 16 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
• The RSA algorithm for public-key cryptography, based on the factoring problem, is first publicly described by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman.{{cite journal|first1=R. |last1=Rivest |last2=Shamir |first2=A. |last3=Adleman |first3=L. |url=http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/rsapaper.pdf |title=A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems |journal=Communications of the ACM |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=120–126 |year=1978 |doi=10.1145/359340.359342 |access-date=2012-01-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070127130201/http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/rsapaper.pdf |archive-date=2007-01-27 |citeseerx=10.1.1.607.2677 |s2cid=2873616 }}

• James Byerlee determines Byerlee's law which gives the stress circumstances in the Earth's crust at which fracturing along a geological fault takes place.{{cite journal|last=Byerlee|first=J. D.|year=1978|title=Friction of rocks|journal=Pure and Applied Geophysics|volume=116|issue=4–5|pages=615–626|doi=10.1007/BF00876528|bibcode = 1978PApGe.116..615B |s2cid=128666327}}

• October 17 – James Burke's history of science series Connections first airs, on BBC Television in the United Kingdom (with accompanying book).{{ISBN|0-333-24827-9}}.

• Fossils of Saint Bathans mammal first collected.
• Fossil footprints of bipedal hominini from 3.6M BP found at Laetoli in Tanzania in 1976 are excavated by Mary Leakey's team.
• A fossilized partial human cranium is among hominid remains found in Apidima Cave in southern Greece; in 2019 it is announced as dating to more than 210,000 years BP, making it the earliest example of Homo sapiens outside Africa.{{cite journal|author1=Harvati, Katerina|author2=Röding, Carolin|author3=Bosman, Abel M.|author4=Karakostis, Fotios A.|author5=Grün, Rainer|author6=Stringer, Chris|author7=Karkanas, Panagiotis|author8=Thompson, Nicholas C.|author9=Koutoulidis, Vassilis|author10=Moulopoulos, Lia A.|author11=Gorgoulis, Vassilis G.|author12=Kouloukoussa, Mirsini|year=2019|title=Apidima Cave fossils provide earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Eurasia|journal=Nature|volume=571|issue=7766|pages=500–504|doi=10.1038/s41586-019-1376-z |pmid=31292546|s2cid=195873640|url=https://zenodo.org/record/6646855 |hdl=10072/397334|hdl-access=free}}

• May 13 – "Basaglia Law" (Mental Health Act) in Italy requires closing down of all psychiatric hospitals and their replacement with community services.
• July 25 – Louise Brown becomes the world's first human born from in vitro fertilisation, in England.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2499000/2499411.stm|title=1978: First 'test tube baby' born|access-date=2013-12-18|date=1978-07-25|work=On This Day|publisher=BBC News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221044857/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25/newsid_2499000/2499411.stm|archive-date=2007-12-21|url-status=live}}
• August – Osteocalcin first identified in animal bone.{{cite journal|author=Hauschka, P. V.|author2=Reid. M. L.|title=Timed appearance of a calcium-binding protein containing gamma-carboxyglutamic acid in developing chick bone|journal=Developmental Biology|volume=65|issue=2|pages=426–34|year=1978|pmid=680371|doi=10.1016/0012-1606(78)90038-6}}
• September 6 – Production of the first genetically engineered synthetic "human" insulin using E. coli by Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center in collaboration with Herbert Boyer at Genentech is announced in California.{{cite web|url=http://www.gene.com/gene/news/press-releases/display.do?method=detail&id=4160|title=First Successful Laboratory Production of Human Insulin Announced|date=1978-09-06|work=News Release|publisher=Genentech|access-date=2014-01-06}}{{cite web|url=http://www.littletree.com.au/dna.htm|title=Recombinant DNA Technology in the Synthesis of Human Insulin|last=Tof|first=Ilanit|year=1994|publisher=Little Tree|access-date=2014-01-06}}
• The rare genetic disorder Pitt–Hopkins syndrome is first described.{{cite journal|author1=Pitt, D.|author2=Hopkins, I.|year=1978|title=A syndrome of mental retardation, wide mouth and intermittent overbreathing|journal=Australian Paediatric Journal|volume=14|issue=3|pages=182–184|doi=10.1111/jpc.1978.14.3.182|pmid=728011|s2cid=45629810}}
• Victor Skumin first describes "cardioprosthetic psychopathological syndrome",{{cite journal |url=https://biblmdkz.ru/articles/kardiologiia.html|pmid=7392405 |year=1980 |last1=Bendet |first1=Ia. A. |last2=Morozov |first2=S. M. |author3-link=Victor Skumin |last3=Skumin |first3=V. A. |title=Psychological aspects of the rehabilitation of patients after the surgical treatment of heart defects |script-title=ru:Психологические аспекты реабилитации больных после хирургического лечения пороков сердца |trans-title=Psychological aspects of the rehabilitation of patients after the surgical treatment of heart defects |language=Russian |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=45–51 |journal=Kardiologiia |access-date=25 June 2024 }} later known as "Skumin syndrome",{{cite web |title=Skumin syndrome |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2569523 |publisher=wikidata.org |access-date=30 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426035327/http://genex.ua/site/page.php?lang=RU&id_part=148&id_word=85&bp=4|archive-date=2012-04-26 |url-status=live}} a form of anxiety suffered by recipients of artificial heart valves.
• Imposter syndrome is first described as a phenomenon.{{cite journal|last1=Clance|first1=Pauline R.|last2=Imes|first2=Suzanne A.|year=1978|title=The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention|url=http://mpowir.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Download-IP-in-High-Achieving-Women.pdf|journal=Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice|volume=15|issue=3 |pages=241–247|doi=10.1037/h0086006}}

• Fields Prize in Mathematics: Pierre Deligne, Charles Fefferman, Grigory Margulis, Daniel Quillen
• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Arno Allan Penzias, Robert Woodrow Wilson
• Chemistry – Peter D. Mitchell
• Medicine – Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans, Hamilton O. Smith
• Turing Award – Robert Floyd

• March 16 – Jemma Redmond (d. 2016), Irish biochemist, pioneer of 3D bioprinting
• July – Caucher Birkar, born Fereydoun Derakhshani, Kurdish-born mathematician
• November 1 – Helen Czerski, English physicist and science populariser

• January 14 – Kurt Gödel (b. 1906), American mathematician
• February 25 – Edith Humphrey (b. 1875), English chemist
• March 9 – Gaston Julia (b. 1893), French mathematician
• March 23 – Haim Ernst Wertheimer (b. 1893), Jewish biochemist
• March 30 – Bill Hamilton (b. 1899), New Zealand mechanical engineer
• March 31 – Charles Best (b. 1899), Canadian medical scientist
• April 21 – Thomas Wyatt Turner (b. 1877), American civil rights activist, biologist and educator; first black person ever to receive a doctorate from Cornell University
• July 22 – André Chapelon (b. 1892), French steam locomotive designer
• September 15 – Willy Messerschmitt (b. 1898), German aircraft engineer
• November 15 – Margaret Mead (b. 1901), American cultural anthropologist

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Category:1970s in science