1981 in science
The year 1981 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.
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Biology
- 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
- 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
IBM PC 5150
Computer science
- 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
- Alexander Merkurjev proves the norm residue isomorphism theorem for the case n = 2 and ℓ = 2.
Medicine
- 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
- April 12 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
Technology
- 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
- 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
- August 21 – Winklevoss twins, American internet entrepreneurs and rowers.
Deaths
- January 5
- Frederick Osborn (b. 1889), American philanthropist and eugenicist.
- Harold Urey (b. 1893), American winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- February 26 – Jennie Smillie Robertson (b. 1878), Canadian gynecological surgeon.
- March 9 – Max Delbrück (b. 1906), German biologist.
- April 3 – Leo Kanner (b. 1894), Austrian American clinical child psychiatrist.
- 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.
- November 17 – Sibyl M. Rock (b. 1909), American mathematician.
- November 22 – Hans Krebs (b. 1900), German medical doctor and biochemist; discoverer of the citric acid cycle.
- December 6 – Harry Harlow (b. 1905), American psychologist.
References
- Bellis, Mary. "IBM History". About.com. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
- Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (June 1981). "Pneumocystis pneumonia — Los Angeles". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control. 30 (21): 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. 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. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
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