The 1970s: Science and Technology: People in the News

THE 1970s: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

J. M. Adovasio and his students began the excavation of Meadowcroft, west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 1970. It was subsequently shown to have been inhabited by humans as early as nineteen thousand years ago—eight thousand years earlier than other known North American sites.

Independently David Baltimore and Howard Martin Temin found an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, which makes possible the transcription of RNA onto DNA. Previously it was thought that genetic information only moved one way, from DNA to RNA. They shared the Nobel Prize in 1975 for this discovery.

In 1973 Charles H. Bennett showed how to build a computer without the components known to cause energy loss.

In April 1978 David Botstein, Ronald Davis, and Mak Skolnick proposed that DNA sequencing can be used to identify genetic diseases in utero, paving the way for fetal genetic screening.

In 1974 Samuel Chao Chung Ting and Burton Richter, working independently, each produced a subatomic particle that contained a new fundamental particle. Called the J/psi particle, the discovery, which had been predicted by the theory of charm, was made possible by the massive new particle accelerators. They shared the Nobel Prize for this work in 1976.

James W. Christy and Robert S. Harrington found in 1978 that the planet Pluto has a satellite. The satellite, named Charon, is believed to be half the size of Pluto itself.

Herbert W. Boyer and Stanley H. Cohen carried out the first genetic engineering experiment, with E. coli, E. coli, in 1973.

French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau brought vivid images of marine environments to millions of U.S. viewers in the 1970s through the ABC series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau,

Albert Victor Crewe, a British-bom American physicist, invented the scanning electron microscope in 1970, enhancing research on small particles.

Researchers in Boulder, Colorado, led by Kenneth M. Evenson, calculated a figure for the speed of light much more precise than any previously obtained. Working with a chain of lasers in 1972, they found the speed of light to be 186,282.3959 miles per second.

David Geiger invented what was to become a new kind of sports arena in 1970: the air-supported, teflon-coated fabric dome. Built like a giant balloon, with air pressure inside 20 percent higher than outside, the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit was constructed by Geiger for a fraction of the cost of similar concrete structures.

Martin F, Geliert and coworkers identified gyrase as the enzyme responsible for the coiled state of most DNA in cells in 1976.

In 1970 physicists John W. Gofman and Arthur R. Tamplin challenged the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), arguing that "safe radiation release standards for nuclear power plants were too high and would cause thirty-two thousand cancer deaths a year. Despite mounting pressure throughout the decade from congressional and United Nations committees and labor and citizen groups, the AEC refused to change its guidelines, though it compromised by offering new operating procedures to reduce radiation leakage.

Har Gobind Korana and his research team at the University of Wisconsin developed the first synthetic gene in 1970. In 1976 they announced that they were able to place such a DNA segment into a plant, where it functioned normally.

Marine biologist Sylvia Earle Mead led a team of five women aquanauts, who did extended underwater research for two weeks without surfacing in July 1970. The work was part of the ongoing Tektite II project, which studied marine life and explored how long people could live underwater.

In 1977 Ann Moore patented the Snugli, a cloth carrier that holds a small child close to the chest. Moore borrowed the idea from women she had seen using a similar device while she was with the Peace Corps in Africa.

In 1970 Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Othanel Smith found the first restriction enzyme, which can cut a DNA strand so it can be reassembled differently, making the work of genetic engineering possible. In 1978 they won the Nobel Prize for medicine for this work, sharing the prize with Werner Arber of Switzerland.

In 1979 the Gillette Corporation bought the Liquid Paper Company from entrepreneur Bette Nesmith for $47.5 million plus royalties. Nesmith had invented the quick-drying typing correction fluid while working as a secretary. In the 1950s she had offered it to IBM, who refused.

Martin L. Perl found in 1974 that when two subatomic particles, the electron and the positron, are smashed together, they create a larger particle. This was named the tau electron or tauon.

Research chemist Marguerite Shue-Wen Chang won the Federal Women's Award in 1973 for outstanding government service, including the invention of the device that triggers underground nuclear test explosives.

Nicholas Wirth developed PASCAL, a popular computer language, in 1972.

Physicist Chien-Shiung Wu won the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1976 for her experimental work disproving the theory of conservation of parity, revolutionizing particle physics.