 the year 1938 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below. ==astronomy== *june 28 â a 450-ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near chicora, pennsylvania. ==biology== * december 22 â marjorie courtenay-latimer discovers a coelacanth, formerly seen only in fossils millions of years old, in a fisherman's catch in south africa. * bawden and pirie publish the first crystal of a spherical virus, tomato bushy stunt virus.bawden, f. c.; pirie, n. w. (1938). british journal of experimental pathology 19: 251. ==chemistry== * april 6 â roy j. plunkett of dupont accidentally discovers polytetrafluoroethylene (teflon). * september 20 â the first patents for nylon (first synthesized in 1935) are granted in the name of wallace carothers to dupont.us patent 2,130,523 linear polyamides suitable for spinning into strong pliable fibers; us patent 2,130,947 diamine dicarboxylic acid salt and us patent 2,130,948 synthetic fibers.  the first items produced in the new material are toothbrush bristles. * november 16 â lysergic acid diethylamide is first synthesized by albert hofmann from ergotamine at the sandoz laboratories in basel. * melamine thermosetting resin is developed by american cyanamid. ==computer science== * konrad zuse in berlin completes his z1 computer, a floating point binary mechanical calculator with limited programmability, using boolean logic and reading instructions from perforated 35&nbsp;mm film.talk given by horst zuse to the computer conservation society at the science museum (london) on 18 november 2010. ==history of science== * albert einstein and leopold infeld publish the evolution of physics. ==mathematics== * frank benford restates the law of distribution of first digits. * alan turing completes his ph.d. thesis, systems of logic based on ordinals, at princeton university; it is presented to the london mathematical society on june 16.{{cite journal|first=a. m.|last=turing|title=system
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