1944 in science

The year1944 inscienceandtechnologyinvolved some significant events, listed below.

List of years in science (table)
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Astronomy

• Hendrik van de Hulstpredicts the 21 cm hyperfine line of neutral interstellarhydrogen.

Biology

• February 1 –Oswald T. Averyand colleagues publish theAvery–MacLeod–McCarty experimentshowing that aDNAmolecule can carry an inheritable trait to a living organism. This is important because many biologists thought thatproteinswere the hereditary material andnucleic acidstoo simple chemically to serve as genetic storage molecules.
• Thelipopolysaccharidecharacter of enteric endotoxins is elucidated by M. J. Shear.
• Erwin SchrödingerpublishesWhat is Life?,containing conceptual discussion of thegenetic codeand ofnegentropy.
• Donald GriffinwithG. W. Piercedemonstrate thatbatsusehigh-frequencysound in a technique which Griffin describes asecholocation.
• Last known evidence for existence of the Asiaticlionin the wild inIran(Khuzestan province).

Chemistry

• February –Lars Onsagerpublishes the exact solution to the two-dimensional Ising model.
• Americiumdiscovered byGlenn T. Seaborg,et al.

Computer science

• August 7 –IBMdedicates the first program-controlledcalculator,the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, best known as theHarvard Mark I.

Geology

• March 18 – Last eruption ofMount Vesuvius.

History of science

• November 4 – TheWhipple Museum of the History of Scienceis established whenRobert Whipplepresents his collection of scientific instruments to theUniversity of Cambridge,England.
• C. Doris Hellmanpublishes herColumbia UniversitythesisThe Comet of 1577: Its Place in the History of Astronomy.

Mathematics

• John von NeumannandOskar Morgenstern's bookTheory of Games and Economic Behavioris published byPrinceton University Press.

Medicine

• November 19 –Minnesota Starvation Experimentbegins.
• Hans AspergerdescribesAsperger syndrome.
• David S. Sheridaninvents the disposable plastictracheal tubecatheter.
• Dorotheaand Alexander Leighton's bookNavajo at the Dooris "the earliest example of appliedmedical anthropology".

Meteorology

• June 5 –Group CaptainJames Staggcorrectly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over theEnglish Channelwhich permits the following day'sNormandy landingsto take place.
• August 6 –Ball lightningobserved inUppsala,Sweden.

Physics

• November 6 –Hanford SiteinWashington (state)produces its firstplutonium.

Technology

• March 27 – In Sweden,Ruben RausingpatentsErik Wallenberg's method of packaging milk in paper, origin of the companyTetra Pak.
• June 13 – First operational use of the GermanV-1 flying bomb,the first operationalcruise missile,containing a gyroscope guidance system and propelled by a simplepulsejetengine.
• September 8 – First operational use of the GermanV-2 rocket,the firstballistic missile.On June 20 one has become the first man-made object to cross theKármán lineand reach the edge of space.
• December 9 – First flight of theHeinkel He 162Volksjäger,the second jet engined fighter aircraft to be introduced by theLuftwaffein World War II.
• First operational use of asnorkelon asubmarine.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics–Isidor Isaac Rabi
  • Chemistry–Otto Hahn
  • Medicine–Joseph Erlanger,Herbert Spencer Gasser

Births

• February 8 –Howard Dalton(died2008), Englishmicrobiologist.
• February 15 –Sigurd Hofmann,Germanphysicist.
• March 7 –Michael Rosbash,Americangeneticistandchronobiologist,recipient of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• June 1 –Colin Blakemore,Englishneurobiologist(died2022).
• June 5 –Whitfield Diffie,Americancryptographer.
• June 6 –Phillip Allen Sharp,Americangeneticistandmolecular biologist,recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• June 22 –Gérard Mourou,French electrical engineer, recipient of theNobel Prize in Physics.
• July 13 –Ernő Rubik,Hungarian inventor and architect.
• August 24 –Gregory Jarvis(died1986), Americanastronaut.
• October 11 –William T. Greenough(died2013), American neuroscientist.
• October 16 –Elizabeth Loftus,Americanpsychologist.
• October 21 –Jean-Pierre Sauvage,Frenchcoordination chemist,recipient of theNobel Prize in Chemistry.
• December 19 –Richard Leakey(died2022), Kenyan palaeoanthropologist.
• December 28 –Kary Mullis(died2019), Americanbiochemist,recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Deaths

• January 19 –Emily Winifred Dickson(born1866), Britishgynaecologist.
• January 20 –James McKeen Cattell(born1860), American psychologist.
• February 8 –Bernard Sachs(born1858), Americanneurologist.
• March –John R.F. Jeffreys(born1918), British mathematician andcryptanalysist.
• March 2 –Ida Maclean(born1877), Englishbiochemist.
• March 5 –Ernst Cohen(born1869),DutchJewishchemist(inAuschwitz concentration camp).
• March 29 –Grace Chisholm Young(born1868), Englishmathematician.
• April 16 –Percy Lane Oliver(born1878),Britishpioneer of voluntaryblood donation
• August 23 –Margarete Zuelzer(born1877), German Jewishmicrobiologist(inWesterbork transit camp).
• June 18 –Harry Fielding Reid(born1859), Americangeophysicist.
• July 25 –Jakob Johann von Uexküll(born1864), Baltic German pioneer ofbiosemiotics.
• November 2 –Thomas Midgley Jr.(born1889), American chemist and inventor.
• November 22 – SirArthur Eddington(born1882), Englishastrophysicist.