The 1940s: Science and Technology: People in the News

THE 1940s: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

In 1940 physical chemist Philip Abelson and physicist Edwin McMillan discovered neptunium, the first transuranic (heavier than uranium) element.

During the 1940s physicist Arthur Compton, winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize for physics for his discovery of the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation, directed research for the Manhattan Project, setting up the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1942.

Molecular biologists Max Delbruck and Salvador Luria collaborated in 1940 to show the dynamics of bacterial mutations. In 1945 Delbruck demonstrated that the bacteriophage (a virus that infects and sometimes destroys bacteria) can reproduce sexually.

In 1949 biologists John Enders, Thomas Weiler, and Frederick Robbins cultivated poliovirus in vitro (that is, outside the human body) on human embryonic tissue.

In 1940 physicists Richard Feyman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga began development of the modern theory of quantum electrodynamics; their work continued until 1950.

In 1947 physiologists Ralph Gerard, Judith Graham, and Gilbert Ling produced a microelectrode that permitted precise study of the chemical and physical properties of muscle and nerve cells.

In June 1942 Gen. Leslie R. Groves, the U.S. Army engineer who built the Pentagon, was given command of the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb.

In 1945 biologist Alfred Day Hershey —a founder, with Delbruck and Luria, of the so-called phage group of researchers—showed that spontaneous mutations can occur in bacterial viruses. The next year, at the same time as Delbruck, he demonstrated that genetic recombination takes places between bacteriophages present in the same cell. These fundamental contributions to molecular biology were building blocks in developing an understanding of the form and function of DNA.

In 1947 biochemist Fritz Lipmann explained the mechanism through which cells obtain energy. He discovered that the purpose of metabolism was to deliver energy into cells and identified a molecule, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), as the source of muscular energy.

In 1944 geneticist Barbara McClintock —whose 1931 paper "A Correlation of Cytological and Genetical Crossing-Over in Zea Mays" became a classic work on chromosomal behavior—was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

A theory formulated by Berkeley physicist Edwin Mattison McMillan led to the invention of the synchrocyclotron, which became operational in November 1946. A powerful subatomic particle accelerator, the synchrocyclotron overcame the slowing of particle acceleration created in earlier cyclotrons by the increasing the mass of particles relative to the speed of light. In February 1949 McMillan used the synchrocyclotron to produce the first synthetically created mesons, charged subatomic particles with a mass in excess of two hundred times that of the electron.

In 1949 physicist Lise Meitner became the first woman to receive the Max Planck Medal for outstanding achievement in theoretical physics. She received the Planck Medal with Otto Hahn for their work on radioactivity and their 1939 explanation of fission of the uranium nucleus, which was quickly applied by physicists in the Manhattan Project.

In 1946 chemist Linus Pauling formulated the valence-bond theory, suggesting how enzymes work as catalysts in chemical reactions.

In 1943 Carl Seyfert discovered a class of galaxies with bright, small nuclei emitting radio energy. Named Seyfert Galaxies in his honor, they are thought to be related to quasars (quasi-stellar radio sources), discovered by astronomers in the 1960s.

In 1941 Robert Woodworth published his report Heredity and Environment, which summarized research on twins and foster children that, according to Woodworth, demonstrated that intelligence is largely dependent on heredity. Finding that children in families living on a low socio-economic level performed much better on intelligence tests than anticipated, Woodworth said, "instead of saying that these children have made good in spite of poor heredity, we must conclude that their heredity was good or fair in spite of the low status and unsatisfactory behavior of their own parents."