The year 1938 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy

• June 28 - A 450-ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

Biology

• December 22 - 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.^[1]

Chemistry

• April 6 - Roy J. Plunkett of DuPont accidentally discovers polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).
• September 20 - The first patents for nylon (first synthesized in 1935) are granted in the name of Wallace Carothers to DuPont.^[2] The first items produced in the new material are toothbrush bristles.
• Lysergic acid diethylamide first synthesized by Albert Hofmann from ergotamine.^[3]

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 mm film.^[4]

Mathematics

• Frank Benford restates the law of distribution of first digits.^[5]

Medicine

• Hans Asperger first adopts the term autism in its modern sense in referring to autistic psychopaths in a lecture (in German) on child psychology.^[6]
• Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini discover electroconvulsive therapy

Physics

• Herbert E. Ives and G. R. Stilwell execute the Ives-Stilwell experiment, showing that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.^[7]
• The Vlasov equation is first proposed for description of plasma by Anatoly Vlasov.^[8]

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Enrico Fermi
  • Chemistry - Richard Kuhn
  • Medicine - Corneille Jean Fran ois Heymans
• Copley Medal: Niels Bohr
• Wollaston Medal for geology: Maurice Lugeon

Births

• April 3 - John Darley, American social psychologist
• April 25 - Roger Boisjoly, American rocket engineer (d. 2012)

Deaths

• January 31 - Sir James Crichton-Browne, British psychiatrist (born 1840)
• May 16 - Joseph Strauss, American bridge engineer (born 1870)

References

fr:1938 en science he:1938 mk:1938 no:Vitenskaps ret 1938 nn:Vitskap i 1938 pl:1938 w nauce pt:1938 na ci ncia ru:1938 sv:Vetenskaps ret 1938