1948 in science
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The year 1948 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy and space science
- February 16 – Miranda, innermost of the large moons of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper from the McDonald Observatory in Texas.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- October 10 – An R-1 (missile) on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Biology
- August 7 – Teaching and research in Mendelian genetics is prohibited in the Soviet Union in favour of Lysenkoist theories of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- October 5 – Delegates to a conference organised by Sir Julian Huxley at Fontainebleau agree to formation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- November 20 – The South Island takahē, a flightless bird generally thought to have been extinct for fifty years, is rediscovered by Geoffrey Orbell near Lake Te Anau in the South Island of New Zealand.
- Last recorded sighting of the Caspian tiger in Kazakhstan.
- Publication of Fairfield Osborne's Our Plundered Planet, a Malthusian critique of human environmental destruction.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Computer science
- May 12 – World's first stored-program computer operates, the mechanical ARC (Automatic Relay Calculator) at Birkbeck College, University of London (largely built by Kathleen Booth).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- June 21 – World's first working program run on an electronic stored-program computer, the Manchester Baby (written by Tom Kilburn).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- July–October – Claude E. Shannon publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in Bell System Technical Journal, regarded as a foundation of information theory,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> introducing the concept of Shannon entropy and adopting the term Bit.
History of science and technology
- December 17 – The original Wright Flyer goes on display in the Smithsonian Institution.
Mathematics
- May – The Descartes snark (210 vertices) in graph theory is described by Bill Tutte writing as Blanche Descartes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Medicine and human sciences
- January 5 – The first Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, is published in the United States.
- April 7 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
- July 5 – The National Health Service begins functioning in the United Kingdom, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Winter 1948/49 – Outbreak of Akureyri disease in Iceland.
- In psychology, Bertram Forer demonstrates the Barnum effect (that people tend to accept generalised descriptions of personality as uniquely applicable to themselves).
- Julius Axelrod and Bernard Brodie identify the analgesic properties of acetaminophen.
Meteorology
- March 25 – Meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issue the world's first tornado forecast, for the second of the 1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes.
Physics
- April 1 – Physicists Ralph Asher Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper about the Big Bang.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- May 29 – Casimir effect predicted by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Herbert Fröhlich makes a key breakthrough in understanding superconductivity, at the University of Liverpool.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Technology
- June 18 – Columbia Records unveil the LP records developed by Peter Goldmark of CBS Laboratories.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- First modern long-span permanent box girder bridge completed, between Cologne and Deutz.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Publications
- First publication of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine.
- Publication in Britain of the novel No Highway by former aeronautical engineer Nevil Shute, dealing with the effects of metal fatigue on aircraft.
Awards
Births
- January 30 – Akira Yoshino, Japanese chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- March 1 – Alison Richard, English primatologist and academic.
- March 9 – László Lovász, Hungarian computer scientist.
- March 21 – Robert Watson, British atmospheric chemist.
- May – David Mabberley, English-born plant taxonomist.
- June 13 – Nina L. Etkin (died 2009), American anthropologist and biologist.
- June 28 – Kenneth Alan Ribet, American mathematician.
- July 20 – Martin Green, Australian solar cell researcher.
- August 4 – Giorgio Parisi, Italian theoretical physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- August 7 – James P. Allison, American immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- August 25 – Nicholas A. Peppas, Greek chemical and biomedical engineer.
- August 29 – Robert S. Langer, American biomedical engineer.
- August 30 – Victor Skumin, Russian scientist, psychiatrist and psychologist; describes Skumin syndrome in 1978.
- September 2 – Christa McAuliffe, born Sharon Christa Corrigan (died 1986), American astronaut.
- October 29 – Frans de Waal, Dutch primatologist.
- October 31 – Mu-ming Poo, Chinese neuroscientist.
- December 30 – Randy Schekman, American cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- Margaret Allen, American cardiothoracic surgeon.
- Robert Plomin, American-born psychologist.
Deaths
- January 30 – Orville Wright (born 1871), American pioneer aviator.
- May 26 – Sir George Newman (born 1870), English public health physician.
- June 10 – Philippa Fawcett (born 1868), English mathematician.
- June 21 – D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (born 1860), Scottish biologist.
- December 12 – Marjory Stephenson (born 1885), English biochemist.