The year 1949 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy and space exploration
June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first mammal in space, in a U.S.-launched V-2 rocket, reaching an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) but dying on impact after a parachute failure.
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.
April – Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester in England.
May 6 – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at University of Cambridge in England, to calculate a table of squares.
August 5 – Ambato earthquake in Ecuador, measuring 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale.
Herbert Butterfield publishes The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.
Ákos Császár discovers the Császár polyhedron.
The use of lithium salts to control mania is rediscovered by Australian psychiatrist John Cade, the first mood stabilizer.
First implant of intraocular lens, by Sir Harold Ridley
January 11 – Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
Gilbert Ryle's book The Concept of Mind, a founding document in the philosophy of mind, is published.
Freeman Dyson demonstrates the equivalence of the formulations of quantum electrodynamics existing at this time, incidentally inventing the Dyson series.
The Lanczos tensor is introduced in general relativity by Cornelius Lanczos.
J. B. S. Haldane proposes the Darwin as a unit of evolutionary change.
Konrad Lorenz publishes King Solomon's Ring (Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Vögeln und den Fischen).
Nobel Prizes
Physics – Yukawa Hideki
Chemistry – William Francis Giauque
Medicine – Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
January 25 – Paul Nurse, English cell biologist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
February 17 – Peter Piot, Belgian microbiologist and epidemiologist.
February 19 – Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan(iel Paul) Bunten (died 1998), American software developer.
April 1 – Alice Alldredge, Australian-born oceanographer.
April 5 – Judith Resnik (died 1986), American astronaut.
May 24 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician.
May 26 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer.
August 31 – H. David Politzer, American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
November 24 – Sally Davies, English Chief Medical Officer.
February 22 – Félix d'Herelle (died 1873), French-Canadian microbiologist, a co-discoverer of bacteriophages.
May 27
Ægidius Elling (born 1861), Norwegian gas turbine pioneer.
Martin Knudsen (born 1871), Danish physicist.
August 5 – Ernest Fourneau (born 1872), French medicinal chemist.
1949 in science Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
