The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Chemistry

• Harold Urey and associates at Columbia University demonstrate the existence of heavy water.^[1]

Mathematics

• January - Kurt G del's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte f r Mathematik.

Technology

• May 27 - Swiss-born scientist Auguste Piccard, taking off from Augsburg, Germany, reaches a record altitude of in a balloon with a pressurized gondola, gathering data on the upper atmosphere and measuring cosmic rays.
• October 5 - American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41 hours.^[2]
• L szl B r first exhibits his ballpoint pen, in Budapest.
• George Beauchamp invents the electric guitar.^[3]

Other events

• November 21 - Release of James Whale's film of Frankenstein in New York, with electrical effects designed by Kenneth Strickfaden.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
  • Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg

Births

• March 25 - John A. Eddy (died 2009), American astronomer.
• August 30 - Jack Swigert (died 1982), American astronaut.
• October 12 - Ole-Johan Dahl (died 2002), Norwegian computer scientist, pioneer of object-oriented programming.

Deaths

• February 11 - Sir Charles Parsons (born 1854), British inventor of the steam turbine.
• October 8 - General Sir John Monash (born 1865), Australian civil engineer.
• October 17 - Alfons Maria Jakob (born 1884), German neuropathologist.
• October 18 - Thomas Edison (born 1847), American inventor.
• November 27 - Sir David Bruce (born 1855), British microbiologist.

References

fr:1931 en science he:1931 mk:1931 no:Vitenskaps ret 1931 nn:Vitskap i 1931 pl:1931 w nauce pt:1931 na ci ncia ru:1931 sv:Vetenskaps ret 1931