1944 in science

See also: 1943 in science, other events of 1944, 1945 in science and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Astronomy 2 Biology 3 Chemistry 4 Computer science 5 Medicine 6 Technology 7 Awards 8 Births 9 Deaths

Astronomy

• Hendrik van de Hulst predicts the 21 cm hyperfine line of neutral interstellar hydrogen.

• Oswald Avery published Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of Pneumococcal types (Avery, O.T., MacLeod, C.M. & McCarty, M. Journal of Experimental Mededicine February 1 issue.) The McCarty laboratory showed that a DNA molecule could carry an inheritable trait to a living organism. This was important because many biologists thought that genes were proteins and that nucleic acids were too simple chemically to serve as genetic storage molecules.

• Americium discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg, et al.
• Lars Onsager publishes the exact solution to the two-dimensional Ising model

• August 7 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, best known as the Harvard Mark I.

• The antibiotic streptomycin is developed.

• December 9 - First flight of the Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger, the second jet engined fighter aircraft to be fielded by the Luftwaffe in WWII.
• Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing invent a way to package milk in paper and start the company Tetra Pak.
• First operational use of a snorkel on a submarine.
• First operational use of the V-2 rocket, the first ballistic missile.

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

Deaths

• November 2 - Thomas Midgley American chemist and inventor
• Arthur Eddington, astrophysicist