1962 in science

Astronautics [ edit | edit the code ]
Mariner 2
 * February
 * February 20 : first flight of an American in orbit in space, John Glenn aboard the capsule Mercury MA-G .
 * February 27 : Soviet accept the American proposal for collaboration in space research.
 * March
 * 16 March : launch of the Soviet satellite Kosmos 1 .
 * March 29 : Signature in London of the Convention establishing the European Centre for Launchers Construction of Spacecrafts ( ELDO ) by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Belgium , the France , the Italy , the Netherlands and Australia (associate member).
 * April
 * April 24 : Launch in Cape Canaveral S 51, first American-British satellite.
 * June
 * June 14 : Signing in Paris of the founding act of ESRO (ESRB).
 * July
 * July 10 : the first orbiting satellite assets of US intercontinental telecommunications, Telstar 1 .
 * July 11 : First issue in Worldvision and live television between the ground stations of Andover in the United States and Pleumeur-Bodou in France viaTelstar 1 .
 * August
 * August 27 : Launch of the US probe Mariner 2, flying over Venus on December 14 and sends data on the temperature and the atmosphere of the planet.
 * September
 * September 12 : John F. Kennedy delivered the speech "We choose to go to the moon."

Astronomy [ edit | edit the code ]

 * December
 * December  : Riccardo Giacconi and his team published the discovery of Scorpius X-1, the first source of X-rays discovered outside the solar system .

Biology and medicine [ edit | edit the code ]

 * The first high-yielding wheat varieties are obtained as a prelude to the green revolution .

Chemistry [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Neil Bartlett summarizes the Xenon hexafluoroplatinate, proving for the first time that the noble gases can form chemical compounds.

Physics [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Brian Josephson postulates the Josephson effect .

Nuclear [ edit | edit the code ]

 * January
 * January 20 : Presentation at Havre the first nuclear-powered cruiser, Long Beach.
 * July
 * July 9 : explosion of a hydrogen bomb with a power of one megaton over Johnson Island in the Pacific.
 * October
 * October 25 : first Belgian nuclear power plant inaugurated in Mol .
 * The US Navy installs a nuclear power plant at the base McMurdoMcMurdo Antarctic Base in the Antarctic . It will never work properly and will be dismantled in 1972 .

Technology [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Nick Holonyak Jr. created the first light emitting diode (LED) in the visible spectrum (red).
 * Americans Dan Shanks and John Wrench, using a transistor calculator, the IBM 7090 get in the record time of 8 h 43 min the first 100,000 decimal places of pi , with the identity operator algorithm:

Transport [ edit | edit the code ]
Main articles: 1962 in aviation and in 1962 the railways .

Publications [ edit | edit the code ]

 * Rachel Carson : Silent Spring Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), Mariner Books, 2002, ISBN 978-0-618-24906-0, the book helped to ban the pesticide DDT in the United States in 1972 .
 * Thomas Kuhn : The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Paris, Flammarion (Champs), 1983 [1962].

Price [ edit | edit the code ]
Lev Landau
 * October 31 : Nobel Prize
 * Physics : Lev Davidovich Landau (Лев Давидович Ландау) for his work on quantum field theory .
 * Chemistry : Max Perutz (Austria), John Cowdery Kendrew (UK) for their discovery of the structure of hemoglobin and myoglobin .
 * Physiology or Medicine : Francis Harry Compton Crick (British), James Watson (American), Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins for their discovery of the double helix structure of DNA .


 * Lasker Award
 * Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research : Li Choh
 * Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award : Joseph Smadel


 * Medals of the Royal Society
 * Buchanan Medal : Landsborough Thomson
 * Copley Medal : Cyril Hinshelwood
 * Darwin Medal : George Gaylord Simpson
 * Davy Medal : Harry Julius Emeleus
 * Hughes Medal : Sheep Bleaney
 * Royal Medal : John Eccles , Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
 * Rumford Medal : Maurice Dudley Newitt


 * Medals of the Geological Society of London
 * Lyell Medal : Lawrence Rickard Wager
 * Murchison Medal : Errol Ivor White
 * Wollaston Medal : Leonard Hawkes


 * Prix ​​Jules Janssen ( astronomy ): Otto Heckmann
 * Bruce Medal ( Astronomy ): Grote Reber
 * Fields Medal : Lars Hormander (Swedish), John Milnor (American)
 * Linnean Medal : Norman Bor and George Gaylord Simpson

Births [ edit | edit the code ]
Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Lars Knudsen
 * February
 * February 6 : Thomas Hylland Eriksen , an anthropologist Norwegian .
 * February 16 : Lars Knudsen , cryptologist Danish .
 * March
 * March 3 : Michael Widenius , computer Finland .
 * March 4 : Claire Voisin , mathematician French .
 * March 5 : Robert Curbeam , astronaut US .
 * March 26 : Yuri Gidzenko , cosmonaut Soviet .
 * March 28 : Bernd Sturmfels , mathematician and computer scientist theoretical German .
 * April
 * April 21 : Sergei Zalyotin , cosmonaut Soviet .
 * May
 * May 12 : Gregory Johnson , astronaut US .
 * June
 * June 19 : Marian Munteanu , anthropologist and professor of Romania .
 * July
 * July 30 : Vladimir Dezhurov , cosmonaut Russian .
 * August
 * August 6 : Gregory Chamitoff , astronaut US .
 * August 7 : José M. Hernández , astronaut and engineer US original Mexican .
 * August 19 : Michael J. Massimino , astronaut US .
 * August 24 : Mary Weber , astronaut American .
 * October
 * October 12 : Julio Navarro , astronomer Argentine .
 * October 13 : Michael T. Good , astronaut US .
 * November
 * November 3 : Phil Katz (died 2000 ), programmer US .
 * November 5 : B. Alvin Drew , astronaut US .
 * November 19 : Nicole Stott , astronaut American .
 * December
 * December 8 : Thomas Henzinger , computer Austrian .
 * Undated
 * Pierre Colmez , mathematician French .
 * Claude Crépeau , cryptologist Canada .
 * Aidan Mark Dodson , Egyptologist British .
 * Nikolai Grube , anthropologist German .
 * Thierry Legault , astronomer amateur French .
 * Frédéric Rossi , archaeologist and editor Swiss .

Death [ edit | edit the code ]
Frank Hurley

Arthur Compton

Niels Bohr
 * January
 * January 9 : Hermann Junker (born 1877 ), Egyptologist German .
 * January 16 : Albert William Herre (born 1868 ), ichthyologist and botanist US .
 * January 17 : Frank Hurley (born 1885 ), photographer , filmmaker and polar explorer of Australia .
 * February
 * February 12 : Joseph Perez (born 1890 ), mathematician and physicist French .
 * February 15 : Elizabeth Adams , zoologist , embryologist American (born 28 March  1962)
 * February 19 : Georgios Papanikolaou (born in 1883 ) biologist Greek .
 * March
 * March 2 : Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin (born 1866 ), mathematician Belgian .
 * March 13 : Franz Kaiser (born 1891 ), astronomer German .
 * March 15 : Arthur Compton (born 1892 ), physicist American , Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 .
 * March 17 : Wilhelm Blaschke (born 1885 ), mathematician Austria .
 * March 20 : Andrew Ellicott Douglass (born 1867 ), astronomer American .
 * March 24 : Auguste Piccard (born 1884 ), physicist and explorer Swiss .
 * April
 * April 30 : Jameson Adams (born 1880 ), explorer UK .
 * May
 * May 6 : Edison Pettit (born 1889 ), astronomer American .
 * May 11 : Eugene Pittard (born 1867 ), anthropologist Swiss .
 * June
 * June 20 : Gabriel Bertrand (born 1867 ), chemist and biologist French .
 * June 30 : Hugh Hamshaw Thomas (born 1885 ), palaeobotanist UK .
 * July
 * July 29 : Ronald Fisher (born in 1890 ) biologist UK .
 * July 30 : Luigi Carnera (born 1875 ), astronomer Italian .
 * August
 * August 2 : Armand de Gramont (born in 1879 ), industrial and scientific French .
 * August 12 : Reginald Ruggles Gates (born 1882 ), botanist , geneticist and anthropologist Canada .
 * August 13 : Charles Jacob (born 1878 ), geologist French .
 * August 26 : Vilhjalmur Stefansson (born 1879 ), anthropologist and explorer Canada .
 * August 28 : Edgar William Richard Steacie (born 1900 ), chemist and professor Canada .
 * September
 * September 11 : Vladimir Artemyev (born 1885 ), Engineer Astronautics Soviet .
 * Sept. 15 : William Coblentz (born 1873 ), physicist US .
 * October
 * 11 October : Erich von Tschermak (born 1871 ), botanist Austria .
 * October 16 : Gaston Bachelard (born 1884 ), philosopher French of science and poetry .
 * November
 * November 18 : Niels Bohr (born 1885 ), physicist Danish Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922 .
 * December
 * December 20 : Emil Artin (born 1898 ), mathematician Austria .
 * December 23 : José Giral (born 1879 ), university and professor of chemistry .
 * December 24 : Wilhelm Ackermann (born 1896 ), mathematician German .
 * Undated
 * Lacam Raymond (born 1900 ), archaeologist French .
 * Félix Chemla Lamèch (born 1894 ), meteorologist and selenographer French .
 * Kunio Yanagita (born 1875 ), anthropologist Japanese .