1958 in science in Encyclopedia

1958 in science

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1958 in science

The year 1958 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

During International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered; and the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition discovers the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range in Antarctica;^[1] also becoming the first to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility (December 14).
April 17–October 19 - Expo 58 in Brussels. The centrepiece is the Atomium; and a model of tobacco mosaic virus structure by Rosalind Franklin's research team is exhibited.

January 4 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit and burns up (launched on October 4, 1957).
January 31 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit.
February 5 - A backup for Vanguard TV3 fails to reach orbit.
February 11 - The strongest ever known solar maximum is recorded.^[2]
March 5 - Explorer 2 fails to reach orbit.
March 17 - Vanguard 1 becomes the first of its program to enter space, after three failed attempts.
March 26 - Explorer 3 is launched into orbit.
April 14 - Sputnik 2 re-enters Earth's atmosphere.
July 29 - The United States Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
September 14 - Two rockets designed by Ernst Mohr (the first post-war German rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.

Denatonium, the bitterest chemical compound known (used as an aversive agent), is discovered during research on local anesthetics by Macfarlan Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland, and registered under the trademark Bitrex.^[3]

Anne McLaren, with John D. Biggers, reports the first mammals, a litter of mice, grown from embryos developed in vitro and transferred to a surrogate mother.^[4]

May 27–June 2 - A joint meeting of the ACM and GAMM at ETH Zurich agrees to produce the International Algebraic Language, which will become the programming language ALGOL.
Friedrich L. Bauer and other members of the ZMMD-Group build a working ALGOL 58 compiler.
John McCarthy specifies the Lisp programming language.

School Mathematics Study Group, directed by Edward G. Begle, established to develop a new school mathematics curriculum for the United States; it is influential in the promotion of New Math.^[5]

June 7 - Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet which describes the diagnostic use of ultrasound.^[6]
Engineer Earl Bakken (U.S.) produces the first wearable external artificial pacemaker, for a patient of Dr. C. Walton Lillehei.
The first clinical implantations into a human of fully implantable artificial pacemakers takes place at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden, using a pacemaker designed by Rune Elmqvist and surgeon ke Senning. The patient, Arne Larsson (1915 2001), survives until age 86.
Denis Parsons Burkitt first describes Burkitt's lymphoma.^[7]^[8]