1981 in science

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The year 1981 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.

Biology[edit]

September – Pantanal Matogrossense National Park designated in Brazil.
Publication of Stephen Jay Gould's critique of biological determinism, The Mismeasure of Man, in the United States.

Chemistry[edit]

A German research team led by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt bombard a target of bismuth-209 with accelerated nuclei of chromium-54 to produce 5 atoms of the isotope bohrium-262

Computer science[edit]

March 5 – The ZX81, a pioneering British home computer, is launched by Sinclair Research, going on to sell over 1.5 million units worldwide.
April 3 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.
July 9 – Nintendo releases the arcade game Donkey Kong featuring the debut of Mario.
August 12 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.^[1]
September 12 – The Chaos Computer Club, a European association of hackers, is established in Berlin by Wau Holland and others.

Mathematics[edit]

Alexander Merkurjev proves the norm residue isomorphism theorem for the case n = 2 and ℓ = 2.

Medicine[edit]

April 26 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco, performs the world's first human open fetal surgery.
June 5 – AIDS pandemic begins when the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an unusual cluster of Pneumocystis pneumonia in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.^[2]
Bruce Reitz leads the team that performs the first successful heart–lung transplant on Mary Gohlke at Stanford Hospital.^[3]
LeCompte maneuver first performed.^[4]
English psychiatrist Lorna Wing introduces the term "Asperger syndrome".^[5]

Space exploration[edit]

April 12 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
October 6 – UoSAT-1, the first modern microsatellite, is launched into Low Earth orbit.^[6]

Technology[edit]

July 7 – Electric aircraft Solar Challenger, designed by an American team led by Paul MacCready and piloted by Stephen Ptacek, makes a 163-mile (262 km) crossing of the English Channel using only solar power from wing-mounted photovoltaic cells.
July 17 – Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Structural failure due to a late design change causes two internal suspended walkways at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri to collapse, killing 114.

Awards[edit]

Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
- Chemistry – Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
- Medicine – Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel
Turing Award – Edgar F. Codd

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

January 5
- Frederick Osborn (b. 1889), American philanthropist and eugenicist.
- Harold Urey (b. 1893), American winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.^[7]
February 26 – Jennie Smillie Robertson (b. 1878), Canadian gynecological surgeon.
March 8 – Joseph Henry Woodger, British theoretical biologist (b. 1894)^[8]
March 9 – Max Delbrück (b. 1906), German biologist.^[9]
April 3 – Leo Kanner (b. 1894), Austrian American clinical child psychiatrist.
May 11 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)^[10]
July 4 - Niels Erik Nørlund (b. 1885), Danish mathematician.
July 27 – Elizabeth Rona (b. 1890), Hungarian American nuclear chemist.
July 31 – Ernest Melville DuPorte (b. 1891), Black Canadian insect morphologist.
September 8 – Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)^[11]
September 9 – Jacques Lacan (b. 1901), French psychoanalyst.^[12]
November 15 – Walter Heitler (b. 1904), German physicist
Fellow of the Royal Society^[13]
November 17
- Wilhelm Pelikan (b. 1893), Austrian chemist.^[14]
- Sibyl M. Rock (b. 1909), American mathematician.
November 22 – Hans Krebs (b. 1900), German medical doctor and biochemist; discoverer of the citric acid cycle.^[15]
December 6 – Harry Harlow (b. 1905), American psychologist.

References[edit]

^ Bellis, Mary. "IBM History". About.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
^ Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (June 1981). "Pneumocystis pneumonia — Los Angeles". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30 (21). Centers for Disease Control: 250–2. PMID 6265753.
^ "5 Questions: Bruce Reitz recalls first successful heart-lung transplant". News Center. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
^ LeCompte, Y.; Neveux, J. Y.; Leca, F.; Zannini, L.; Tu, T. V.; Duboys, Y.; Jarreau, M. M. (November 1982). "Reconstruction of the pulmonary outflow tract without prosthetic conduit". The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 84 (5): 727–33. doi:10.1016/S0022-5223(19)38962-7. ISSN 0022-5223. PMID 7132411.
^ Wing, L. (1981). "Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account". Psychological Medicine. 11 (1): 115–29. doi:10.1017/S0033291700053332. PMID 7208735. S2CID 16046498. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
^ Cook, Mike (June 1986). "Way into the world of satellite telemetry". The Micro User. 4 (4). Stockport, UK: Database Publications: 100–1. ISSN 0265-4040.
^ Cohen, K. P.; Runcorn, S. K.; Suess, H. E.; Thode, H. G. (1983). "Harold Clayton Urey 29 April 1893-5 January 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 29: 622–659. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1983.0022. JSTOR 769815.
^ Popper, Karl (1981). "Obituary: Joseph Henry Woodger". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 32 (3): 328–330. doi:10.1093/bjps/32.3.328.
^ William Hayes (1982). "Max Ludwig Henning Delbruck. 4 September 1906-10 March 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 28. London: Royal Society: 58–90. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1982.0003. JSTOR 769892.
^ Pedersen, Bjørn (2019-09-24), "Odd Hassel", Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian), retrieved October 23, 2019
^ Kemmer, N. (1983). "Hideki Yukawa. 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 29: 660–676. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1983.0023. JSTOR 769816.
^ Johnston, Adrian (2018). "Jacques Lacan". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University.
^ Mott, N. (1982). "Walter Heinrich Heitler. 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 28: 140–151. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1982.0007. JSTOR 769896.
^ Wilhelm Pelikan
^ Kornberg, H.; Williamson, D. H. (1984). "Hans Adolf Krebs. 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 30: 350–385. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1984.0013. PMID 11616005.

[1] Bellis, Mary. "IBM History". About.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved 2011-11-30.

[2] Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (June 1981). "Pneumocystis pneumonia — Los Angeles". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 30 (21). Centers for Disease Control: 250–2. PMID 6265753.

[Stanford-3] "5 Questions: Bruce Reitz recalls first successful heart-lung transplant". News Center. Retrieved 2 February 2019.

[4] LeCompte, Y.; Neveux, J. Y.; Leca, F.; Zannini, L.; Tu, T. V.; Duboys, Y.; Jarreau, M. M. (November 1982). "Reconstruction of the pulmonary outflow tract without prosthetic conduit". The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 84 (5): 727–33. doi:10.1016/S0022-5223(19)38962-7. ISSN 0022-5223. PMID 7132411.

[5] Wing, L. (1981). "Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account". Psychological Medicine. 11 (1): 115–29. doi:10.1017/S0033291700053332. PMID 7208735. S2CID 16046498. Retrieved 2007-08-15.

[6] Cook, Mike (June 1986). "Way into the world of satellite telemetry". The Micro User. 4 (4). Stockport, UK: Database Publications: 100–1. ISSN 0265-4040.

[7] Cohen, K. P.; Runcorn, S. K.; Suess, H. E.; Thode, H. G. (1983). "Harold Clayton Urey 29 April 1893-5 January 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 29: 622–659. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1983.0022. JSTOR 769815.

[8] Popper, Karl (1981). "Obituary: Joseph Henry Woodger". British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 32 (3): 328–330. doi:10.1093/bjps/32.3.328.

[9] William Hayes (1982). "Max Ludwig Henning Delbruck. 4 September 1906-10 March 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 28. London: Royal Society: 58–90. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1982.0003. JSTOR 769892.

[10] Pedersen, Bjørn (2019-09-24), "Odd Hassel", Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian), retrieved October 23, 2019

[11] Kemmer, N. (1983). "Hideki Yukawa. 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 29: 660–676. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1983.0023. JSTOR 769816.

[12] Johnston, Adrian (2018). "Jacques Lacan". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University.

[frs-13] Mott, N. (1982). "Walter Heinrich Heitler. 2 January 1904 – 15 November 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 28: 140–151. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1982.0007. JSTOR 769896.

[14] Wilhelm Pelikan

[15] Kornberg, H.; Williamson, D. H. (1984). "Hans Adolf Krebs. 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 30: 350–385. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1984.0013. PMID 11616005.

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