1901 in science

The year1901 inscienceandtechnologyinvolved some significant events, listed below.

List of years in science (table)
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Biology

• Okapi,a relative of theGiraffefound in therainforestsaround theCongo Riverin north eastZaire,is discovered (previously known only to local natives).
• Publication ofRobert Ridgway'sThe Birds of North and Middle Americaby theSmithsonian Institutionbegins.
• Edmund Selouspublishes the bookBird Watchingin the U.K., giving rise to the termbirdwatching.

Chemistry

• May 27– TheEdison Storage Battery Companyis founded inNew Jersey.
• June 17–Europiumis discovered byEugène-Anatole Demarçay.
• Emil Fischer,in collaboration withErnest Fourneau,synthesizes thedipeptide,glycylglycine,and also publishes his work on thehydrolysisofcasein.
• Edith Humphreybecomes (probably) the first British woman to obtain a doctorate in chemistry, at theUniversity of Zurich.

Computing

• December 13 (20:45:52) – Retrospectively, this becomes the earliest date representable with a signed32-bitinteger on digital computer systems that reference time in seconds since theUnix epoch.

Exploration

• August 6 –Discovery Expedition:Robert Falcon Scottsets sail on theRRSDiscoveryto explore theRoss SeainAntarctica.

History of Science

• September 25 – Establishment ofDeutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften,the world's firsthistory of sciencesociety.

Mathematics

• April –Henri LebesguedefinesLebesgue integrationfor some function f(x).
• May/June –Russell's paradox:Bertrand Russellshows thatGeorg Cantor'snaive set theoryleads to a contradiction.
• Élie Cartandevelops theexterior derivative.
• Leonard Eugene DicksonpublishesLinear groups with an exposition of the Galois field theoryinLeipzig,advancing theclassification of finite simple groupsand listing almost allnon-abeliansimple groupshaving order less than one billion.
• Aleksandr Lyapunovproves thecentral limit theoremrigorously using characteristic functions.

Paleontology

• Publication begins ofA Monograph of British GraptolitesbyGertrude L. EllesandDr Ethel M. R. Wood,edited byCharles Lapworth.

Photography

• Eastman Kodakintroduce the120 film.

Physics

• January 23 –Guglielmo Marconisends a radio signal 299 km (186 mi) 'over the horizon' in the British Isles fromNitonon theIsle of WighttoThe LizardinCornwall.
• December 12 – Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent fromPoldhuin Cornwall, England, toNewfoundland,the letter "S" inMorse.
• Albert Einsteinpublishes his conclusions oncapillarity.
• Owen Richardsondescribes the phenomenon inthermionic emissionwhich gives rise to Richardson's Law.
• Ivan Yarkovskydescribes theYarkovsky effect,athermalforce acting on rotating bodies in space, in a pamphlet on "The density of light ether and the resistance it offers to motion" published inBryansk.

Physiology and medicine

• November 25 –Auguste Deteris first examined by DrAlois AlzheimerinFrankfortleading to a diagnosis of thecondition that will carry Alzheimer's name.
• Jōkichi Takamineisolates and namesadrenalinefrom mammalian organs.
• Ivan Pavlovdevelops the theory of the "conditional reflex".
• Georg KellingofDresdenperforms the first "coelioscopy" (laparoscopic surgery), on a dog.
• William C. Gorgascontrols the spread ofyellow feverinCubaby amosquitoeradication program.
• Scottish military doctorWilliam Boog Leishmanidentifies organisms from the spleen of a patient who had died from "Dum Dumfever "(later known asleishmaniasis) and proposes them to betrypanosomes,found for the first time in India.
• An improvedsphygmomanometer,for the measurement ofblood pressure,is invented and popularized byHarvey Cushing.
• Karl Landsteinerdiscovers the existence of different humanblood types
• GermanOscar Troplowitzinvents forBeiersdorfthe medical plaster patch 'Leukoplast'.

Psychology

• Edward B. Titchener's textbookExperimental Psychologypopularizes theEbbinghaus illusion.

Technology

• May 16 –TSKing Edwardis launched atWilliam Denny and Brothers' shipyard inDumbarton,Scotland.The first commercial merchant vessel propelled bysteam turbines,she enters excursion service on theFirth of Clydeon July 1.
• July 10 – The world's first passenger-carryingtrolleybusin regular service operates on theBiela Valley Trolleybusroute atKoeninggsteinin Germany, pioneering Max Schiemann's under-running trolley current collection system.
• August 30 –Hubert Cecil Boothpatentsthe electrically poweredvacuum cleanerin the United Kingdom
• November 30 –Frank HornbyofLiverpoolis granted a U.K. patent for the construction toy that will becomeMeccano.
• December 3 –King C. Gillettefiles a U.S. patent application for his design ofsafety razorutilizing thin, disposable blades of stampedsteel.
• Theodor Rallpatents his design ofrolling lift bridge.
• German engineerRichard Fiedlerinvents the modernflamethrower,theKleinflammenwerfer.
• Ernest Godwardinvents thespiral hairpinin New Zealand.

Publications

• H. G. Wells' "scientific romance"The First Men in the Moonand his collected articles onfuturologyAnticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought.

Awards

• FirstNobel Prizesawarded
  • Physics–Wilhelm Röntgen
  • Chemistry–J. H. van 't Hoff
  • Medicine–Emil Adolf von Behring
• Copley Medal–J. Willard Gibbs
• Wollaston Medal for Geology–Charles Barrois

Births

• January 14 –Alfred Tarski(died1983),Polish Jewishlogicianandmathematician.
• January 18 –Frank Zamboni(died1988), American inventor
• February 28 –Linus Pauling(died1994), Americanchemist,Nobel Prizewinner for chemistry and peace.
• March 2 –Grete Hermann(died1984), German mathematician and philosopher
• March 6 –Rex Wailes(died1986), English engineer and historian of technology.
• April 13 –Jacques Lacan(died1981), Frenchpsychoanalyst.
• April 23 –E. B. Ford(died1988), Englishecological geneticistandlepidopterist.
• April 29 –Hirohito(died1989), marine biologist andEmperor of Japan.
• July 2 –Esther Somerfeld-Ziskind(died2002), American neurologist and psychiatrist.
• August 8 –Ernest Lawrence(died1958), American nuclear scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939.
• August 10 –Franco Rasetti(died2001), Italianphysicist.
• September 15 –Elie Carafoli(died1983),Aromanianaeronautical engineer.
• September 29 –Enrico Fermi(died1954), Italian nuclear physicist.
• October 8 –Mark Oliphant(died2000), Australian nuclear physicist.
• November 6 –Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker(died1957), Britishphycologist.
• December 5 –Werner Heisenberg(died1976), Germantheoretical physicist.
• December 16 –Margaret Mead(died1978), Americancultural anthropologist.
• December 20 –Robert J. Van de Graaff(died1967), American physicist.

Deaths

• January 21 –Elisha Gray(born1835), Americanelectrical engineer.
• February 11 –Henry Willis(born1821), English organ builder.
• February 21 –George FitzGerald(born1851), Irishphysicist.
• April 16 –Henry Augustus Rowland(born1848), Americanphysicist.
• September 10 –Emanuella Carlbeck(born1829), Swedish pioneer in the education of students with Intellectual disability.