The year 1926 in science and technology involved
some significant events, listed below.
== Astronomy and space exploration ==
March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first
liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
== Biology ==
American microbiologist Selman Waksman publishes
Enzymes.
The Quarterly Review of Biology is established
by Raymond Pearl in the United States.
== Chemistry ==
Waldo Semon and the B.F. Goodrich Company
develop a method of plasticizing polyvinyl
chloride, giving it commercial potential.
Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust) is first synthesized.
== Earth sciences ==
Vladimir Vernadsky popularises the concept
of the biosphere in a book (in Russian) of
this title.
== Exploration ==
May 12 – Roald Amundsen, Umberto Nobile
and crew fly over the North Pole in the airship
Norge.
== Mathematics ==
Otakar Borůvka publishes Borůvka's algorithm,
introducing the greedy algorithm.
== Medicine ==
First vaccine for Pertussis.
American biogerontologist Raymond Pearl publishes
his book Alcohol and Longevity demonstrating
that drinking alcohol in moderation is associated
with greater longevity than either abstaining
or drinking heavily.
Finnish physician Erik Adolf von Willebrand
first describes Hereditär pseudohemofili
("Hereditary pseudohemophilia"), later known
as Von Willebrand disease.
German-Jewish dermatologist Walter Freudenthal
gives the earliest clear histopathological
description of keratoma senile (actinic keratosis),
distinguishing it from verruca senilis (seborrheic
keratosis), in Breslau.
== Paleontology ==
Gerhard Heilmann publishes The Origin of Birds
(in English) on bird evolution.
== Physics ==
Wolfgang Pauli uses Werner Heisenberg's matrix
theory of quantum mechanics to derive the
observed spectrum of the hydrogen atom.
== Technology ==
February – Hidetsugu Yagi and Shintaro Uda
publish the first description of the Yagi-Uda
antenna.
June 28 – A patent for an electric percussion
fuse for explosive projectiles, invented by
Herbert Rühlemann, is filed in Germany.
July
Alan A. Griffith publishes An Aerodynamic
Theory of Turbine Design, proposing an airfoil
shape for turbine blades.
Carl Zeiss, Jena, open a planetarium housed
in a geodesic dome designed by Walther Bauersfeld.
November 23 – The aerosol spray can is patented
by Erik Rotheim, a Norwegian chemical engineer.
Ulster-born engineer Harry Ferguson is granted
a British patent for his 'Duplex' hitch linking
tractor and plough.
== Awards ==
Nobel Prizes
Physics – Jean Baptiste Perrin
Chemistry – Theodor Svedberg
Medicine – Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger
Copley Medal: Frederick Hopkins
Wollaston Medal for Geology: Henry Fairfield
Osborn
== Births ==
January 11 – Lev Dyomin (died 1998), Soviet
Russian cosmonaut.
January 29 – Abdus Salam (died 1996), Punjabi
theoretical physicist.
February – David Medved (died 2009), American
physicist.
April 3 – Gus Grissom (died 1967), American
astronaut.
May 8 – David Attenborough, English broadcaster
and naturalist.
June 23 – Lawson Soulsby (died 2017), English
parasitologist.
July 27 – W. David Kingery (died 2000),
American materials scientist specializing
in ceramic materials.
September 4 – George William Gray (died
2013), Scottish chemist, discoverer of stable
liquid crystal materials leading to the development
of liquid crystal displays.
September 15 – Jean-Pierre Serre, French
mathematician.
October 2 – Michio Suzuki (died 1998), Japanese
mathematician.
October 12 – Ruth L. Kirschstein (died 2009),
American pathologist and science administrator
at the National Institutes of Health.
October 31 – Narinder Singh Kapany, Punjabi-born
physicist.
December 10 – Neena Schwartz, American endocrinologist.
== Deaths ==
March 5 – Clément Ader (born 1841), French
engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer.
April 11 – Luther Burbank (born 1849), American
plant breeder.
July 21 – Washington Roebling (born 1837),
American civil engineer.
September 23 – Paul Kammerer (born 1880),
Austrian Lamarckian biologist (suicide).
October 7 – Emil Kraepelin (born 1856),
German psychiatrist.
October 10 – Clara H. Hasse (born 1880,
American botanist.
November 26 – John Browning (born 1855),
American firearms designer
