View source for 1934 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1934|science}}
{{Science year nav|1934}}

The year '''1934 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy==
* [[Richard Tolman]] shows that [[black-body]] radiation in an expanding universe cools but remains thermal.
* [[Georges Lemaître]] interprets the [[cosmological constant]] as due to a [[vacuum energy]] with an unusual perfect fluid [[equation of state]].

==Chemistry==
* The [[Mulliken scale]] of [[chemical element]] [[electronegativity]] is developed by [[Robert S. Mulliken]].
* [[Norman Haworth]] and [[Edmund Hirst]] report the first synthesis of [[vitamin C]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Davies|first1=Michael B.|last2=Austin|first2=John|last3=Partridge|first3=David A.|title=Vitamin C: Its Chemistry and Biochemistry|publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry|location=London|year=1991|page=48|isbn=978-0-85186-333-7}}</ref>
* [[J. D. Bernal]] and [[Dorothy Hodgkin|Dorothy Crowfoot]] first successfully apply the technique of [[X-ray crystallography]] to analysis of a biological substance, [[pepsin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hodgkin.html|title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, OM|accessdate=2012-01-13|archive-date=2012-01-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112214431/http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hodgkin.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The first commercial [[heavy water]] plant is built at [[Vemork]] in Norway; production also starts this year at [[Dnepropetrovsk]] in the Soviet Union.

==History of science and technology==
* January 18 – [[The Iron Bridge]] in [[Shropshire]], dating from the [[Industrial Revolution]] period, becomes an officially [[scheduled monument]] in England.
* [[Lewis Mumford]] publishes ''[[Technics and Civilization]]''.

==Mathematics==
* [[Penrose triangle]] devised.

==Physics==
* March 25 – [[Enrico Fermi]] publishes his discovery of [[neutron activation]] of [[radioactive decay]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Enrico|last=Fermi|title=Radioattività indotta da bombardamento di neutroni|journal=La Ricerca Scientifica|volume=1|issue=5|date=1934-03-25|page=283|url=http://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/museo/collezione%20Fermi/documento2.htm|access-date=2013-10-20|archive-date=2021-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224071249/https://www.phys.uniroma1.it/DipWeb/museo/collezione%20Fermi/documento2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Sonoluminescence]] is discovered at the [[University of Cologne]].
* [[Gregory Breit]] and [[John A. Wheeler]] describe the [[Breit–Wheeler process]].
* [[Henri Coandă]] obtains his first patent, in France, on the [[Coandă effect]].

==Physiology and medicine==
* March 8 – [[Sodium thiopental]], the first intravenous [[anesthetic]], synthesized by [[Ernest H. Volwiler]] with Donalee L. Tabern of [[Abbott Laboratories]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tabern|first1=D. L.|last2=Volwiler|first2=E. H.|title=Sulfur-containing barbiturate hypnotics|journal=[[Journal of the American Chemical Society]]|volume=57|issue=10|pages=1961–3|year=1935|doi=10.1021/ja01313a062}}</ref> is first administered to human subjects.
* November 1 – [[William F. Wells]] publishes the [[Wells curve]] (or Wells evaporation falling curve of droplets) giving an explanation of the behavior of exhaled [[respiratory droplets]] and their influence on the transmission of infectious respiratory diseases.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wells|first=W. F.|title=On Air-Borne Infection|year=1934|url=https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/20/3/611/280025|journal=[[American Journal of Epidemiology]]|volume=20|issue=3 |pages=611–618|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a118097}}</ref>
* Outbreak of "atypical poliomyelitis",  strongly resembling what would later be called [[chronic fatigue syndrome]], affects a large number of medical staff at the [[Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center|Los Angeles County Hospital]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Patarca-Montero|first=R.|title=Medical Etiology, Assessment, and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue and Malaise|publisher=Haworth Press|location=New York|year=2004|pages=6–7|isbn=978-0-7890-2196-0}}</ref>
* [[George de Hevesy]] uses [[heavy water]] in one of the first biological [[Radioactive tracer|tracer]] experiments, to estimate the rate of turnover of water in the human body.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=von Hevesy|first1=G.|last2=Hofer|first2=E.|year=1934|title=Die Verweilzeit des Wassers im Menschlichen Körper. Untersucht mit Hilfe von "schwerem" Wasser als Indicator|journal=[[Klinische Wochenschrift]]|volume=13|page=1524|doi=10.1007/BF01779120 |s2cid=23696178 }}</ref>
* Austrian biochemist [[Regina Kapeller-Adler]] develops an innovative early [[pregnancy test]] based on the presence of [[histidine]] in urine.
* [[Tudor Thomas]]' work on [[corneal graft]]ing restores the sight of a man who had been nearly blind for 27 years.

==Technology==
* April 3 – [[Percy Shaw]] [[patent]]s the [[cat's eye (road)|cat's eye]] road-safety device in Britain.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Challoner, Jack|title=1001 Inventions That Changed the World|location=London|publisher=Cassell|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84403-611-0|pages=634–5}}</ref>
* April 18 – [[Citroën Traction Avant]] introduced, the world's first [[front-wheel drive]] [[monocoque]] (welded steel unit body) production [[automobile]], designed by [[André Lefèbvre]] and [[Flaminio Bertoni]].
* April 24 – [[Laurens Hammond]] patents the [[Hammond organ]] in the United States.<ref>{{US patent reference|number=1956350|y=1934|m=04|d=24|inventor=Laurens Hammond|title=[https://patents.google.com/patent/US1956350 Electrical Musical Instrument]}}</ref>
* The [[135 film]] cartridge is introduced in Germany and the United States with the Kodak Retina camera, making 35mm film easy to use.
* The first commercial electronic [[television set]]s with [[cathode-ray tube]]s are manufactured by [[Telefunken]] in Germany.

==Publications==
* Samuel C. Bradford proposes [[Bradford's law]] of scattering, an example of [[Pareto distribution]] applicable in the [[bibliometrics]] of scientific literature and beyond.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bradford|first=Samuel C.|title=Sources of Information on Specific Subjects|journal=Engineering|volume=137|date=1934-01-26|pages=85–86}}</ref>
* [[Karl Popper]] publishes ''[[The Logic of Scientific Discovery|Logik der Forschung]]''.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]]: not awarded
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]]: [[Harold Clayton Urey]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Physiology or Medicine]]: [[George Hoyt Whipple]], [[George Richards Minot]], [[William Parry Murphy]]

==Births==
* February 15 – [[Niklaus Wirth]] (died [[2024 in science|2024]]), Swiss computer scientist.
* March 4 – [[Janez Strnad]], Slovenian physicist.
* March 5 – [[Daniel Kahneman]] (died 2024), [[Israel]]i-American [[psychologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]].
* March 6 – [[Milton Diamond]], American sexologist and professor of anatomy and reproductive biology.
* March 9 – [[Yuri Gagarin]] (died [[1968 in science|1968]]), Russian [[Astronaut|cosmonaut]], the first man in [[Outer space|space]].
* March 14 – [[Eugene Cernan]] (died [[2017 in science|2017]]), [[Americans|American]] [[astronaut]], the last man to walk on the Moon (1972)
* March 23 – [[Ludvig Faddeev]] (died 2017), Russian mathematician and theoretical physicist.
* March 31 – [[Carlo Rubbia]], Italian winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].
* April 2 – [[Paul Cohen]] (died [[2007 in science|2007]]), American mathematician, winner of the [[Fields Medal]].
* April 3 – [[Jane Goodall]], English [[Primatology|primatologist]].
* April – [[Dona Strauss]], South African-born mathematician.
* May 21 – [[Bengt I. Samuelsson]], Swedish biochemist, winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* May 23
** [[Robert Moog]] (died [[2005 in science|2005]]), American pioneer of [[electronic music]].
** [[Willie Hobbs Moore]] (died [[1994 in science|1994]]), [[African American]] engineer.
* May 30 – [[Alexei Leonov]] (died [[2019 in science|2019]]), Russian cosmonaut, the first man to walk in space.
* July 7 – [[Robert McNeill Alexander]] (died [[2016 in science|2016]]), British zoologist, authority on animal locomotion.
* September 21 – [[David J. Thouless]] (died 2019), Scottish-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
* November 9 – [[Carl Sagan]] (died [[1996 in science|1996]]), American [[astronomer]].
* November 27 – [[Gilbert Strang]], American mathematician.

==Deaths==
* January 6 – [[Fernand Lataste]] (born [[1847 in science|1847]]), French zoologist.
* January 14 – [[Ioan Cantacuzino]] (born [[1863 in science|1863]]), [[Romanians|Romanian]] [[microbiologist]].
* January 29 – [[Fritz Haber]] (born [[1868 in science|1868]]), German [[chemist]].
* February 25 – [[Elizabeth Gertrude Britton]] (born [[1858 in science|1858]]), American [[botanist]].
* April 9 – [[Oskar von Miller]] (born [[1855 in science|1855]]), German electrical engineer and founder of the [[Deutsches Museum]].
* April 10 – [[Cecilia Grierson]] (born [[1859 in science|1859]]), Argentine physician and reformer.
* April 21 – [[Carsten Borchgrevink]] (born [[1864 in science|1864]]), [[Norwegians|Norwegian]] [[Antarctic]] explorer.
* July 4 – [[Marie Curie]] (born [[1867 in science|1867]]), Polish-born French [[physicist]].<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC – History – Marie Curie |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/curie_marie.shtml |website=www.bbc.co.uk |accessdate=20 January 2020}}</ref>
* October 17 – [[Santiago Ramón y Cajal]] (born [[1852 in science|1852]]), Spanish winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* September 27 – [[Ellen Willmott]] (born [[1858 in science|1858]]), English [[horticulturist]].
* November 16 – [[Carl von Linde]] (born [[1842 in science|1842]]), German refrigeration engineer.
* November 20 – [[Willem de Sitter]] (born [[1872 in science|1872]]), [[Dutch people|Dutch]] [[mathematician]], [[physicist]] and [[astronomer]].
* December 2 – [[T. H. E. C. Espin]] (born [[1858 in science|1858]]), English astronomer, scientist and clergyman.
* December 10 – [[Theobald Smith]] (born [[1859 in science|1859]]), American [[bacteriologist]].
* December 31 – [[Cornelia Clapp]] (born [[1849 in science|1859]]), American marine biologist<ref>{{cite book|first=Moira Davison|last=Reynolds|title=American Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies, 1900-2000|location=Jefferson NC|publisher=McFarland|year=2004|page=8|isbn=978-0-78642-161-9}}</ref>
* [[William Hoskins (inventor)|William Hoskins]] (born [[1862 in science|1862]]), American [[inventor]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1934 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1930s in science]]