# 1949 in science

The year 1949 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

## Astronomy and space exploration

* January 26 – The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, sees first light.
* 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.

## Chemistry

* 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.

## Computer science

* 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.

## Earth sciences

* August 5 – Ambato earthquake in Ecuador, measuring 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale.
* Patomskiy crater in Siberia is discovered by Russian geologist Vadim Kolpakov.

## History of science

* Herbert Butterfield publishes The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.

## Mathematics

* Ákos Császár discovers the Császár polyhedron.
* D. R. Kaprekar discovers the convergence property of the number 6174.

## Medicine

* 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
* First Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, a self-report personality test, released.

## Meteorology

* January 11 – Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.

## Philosophy

* Gilbert Ryle's book The Concept of Mind, a founding document in the philosophy of mind, is published.

## Physics

* 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.
* Pauli–Villars regularization is first published.

## Zoology

* 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).

## Awards

* Nobel Prizes
** Physics – Hideki Yukawa
** Chemistry – William Francis Giauque
** Medicine – Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz

## Births

* January 25 – Paul Nurse, English cell biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* February 1 – Alice Alldredge, Australian-born oceanographer.
* February 17 – Peter Piot, Belgian microbiologist and epidemiologist.
* February 19 – Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan(iel Paul) Bunten (died 1998), American software developer.
* February 22 – Tullio Pozzan (died 2022), Italian biochemist.
* March 28 – Michael W. Young, American geneticist and chronobiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* April 5 – Judith Resnik (died 1986), American astronaut.
* April 18 – Yasumasa Kanada, Japanese mathematician.
* May 24 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician.
* May 26 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer.
* June 2 – Heather Couper (died 2020), English astronomer.
* July 23 – Andrew Odlyzko, Polish-born American mathematician.
* August 31 – H. David Politzer, American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
* November 6 – John Zarnecki, English space scientist
* November 24 – Sally Davies, English Chief Medical Officer.
* Michael Houghton, British-born virologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

## Deaths

* February 22 – Félix d'Herelle (died 1873), French-Canadian microbiologist, a co-discoverer of bacteriophages.
* April 28 – Robert Robertson (born 1869), British chemist.
* 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.