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The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

  • January 15 – The Moon moves into perigee at the same time as the lunar phase reaches its fullest. This is the closest Moon distance to Earth (at 356,397&nbsp;km) in 23 years and it will not come closer until 2257.
  • February 18 – Pluto is identified by Clyde Tombaugh from photographs taken during January at the Lowell Observatory.
  • Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.

Atmospheric sciences

  • January 30 – Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Pavlovsk in the Soviet Union.
  • Sydney Chapman explains the ozone-oxygen cycle, the process by which ozone is continually regenerated in Earth's stratosphere.

Botany

  • Elena Ivanovna Barulina produces the first study of the international distribution of lentils.

Chemistry

  • April 17 – Neoprene is invented by DuPont.

History of science

  • Soviet Orientalist Vasily Vasilievich Struve, with Boris Turaev, provides solutions to the problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus.
  • The University of Florence in Italy creates the Istituto di Storia della Scienza con annesso Museo (Institute of the History of Science and attached Museum), predecessor of the Museo Galileo.
  • The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical text, is translated for the first time.

Mathematics

  • Vojtěch Jarník first discovers 'Prim's algorithm'.
  • Kazimierz Kuratowski characterizes his planar graph theorem.
  • Bartel van der Waerden publishes Moderne Algebra.
  • DPT vaccine (against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) is first used.

Physics

  • December 4 – Wolfgang Pauli postulates the existence of the particle later identified as the electron neutrino.

Technology

  • August 18 – Salginatobel Bridge in Switzerland, designed by Robert Maillart, opened.
  • November 13 – Rotolactor rotating platform milking machine first operates.

Zoology

  • Israel Aharoni collects golden hamsters near Aleppo from which all modern domesticated specimens will be bred.

Awards

  • Lyell Medal (Geological Society of London) – Frederick Chapman
  • Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – C. V. Raman
  • Chemistry – Hans Fischer
  • Physiology or Medicine – Karl Landsteiner

Births

  • January 9 – Jacob T. Schwartz (died 2009), American mathematician and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
  • January 13 – Harold Furth (died 2002), Austrian-born expert in plasma physics and nuclear fusion.
  • January 20 – Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut, lunar module pilot on Apollo 11.
  • February 7 – Ikutaro Kakehashi (died 2017), Japanese electronic music engineer.
  • February 23 – Goro Shimura (died 2019), Japanese mathematician.
  • February 28 – Leon Cooper, American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
  • March 7 – Daphne Osborne (died 2006), British botanist.
  • March 15 – Martin Karplus (died 2024), Austrian-born theoretical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
  • April 9 – Nathaniel Branden (died 2014), Canadian American psychotherapist.
  • April 16 – Louis Herman (died 2016), American marine biologist, investigator in animal communication.
  • April 20 – Gordon Hamilton Fairley (killed 1975), British oncologist.
  • May 9 – Susan Leeman, American neuroendocrinologist.
  • May 11 – Edsger W. Dijkstra (died 2002), Dutch computer scientist.
  • May 28 – Frank Drake (died 2022), American radio astronomer, pioneer in SETI
  • June 2 – Pete Conrad (died 1999), American astronaut.
  • June 22 – Yury Artyukhin (died 1998), Soviet Russian cosmonaut.
  • June 28 – William C. Campbell, Irish-born parasitologist and Nobel Prize winner.
  • August 5 – Neil Armstrong (died 2012), American astronaut, first person to walk on the Moon.
  • August 7 – Joe Farman (died 2013), British geophysicist working for the British Antarctic Survey.
  • September 7 – Yuan Longping (died 2021), Chinese agronomist.
  • September 12 – Akira Suzuki, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
  • September 24 – John Young (died 2018), American astronaut.
  • October 10 – Yves Chauvin (died 2015), Belgian-born chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
  • October 17 – Robert Atkins (died 2003), American nutritionist.
  • October 27 – Gladys West, née Gladys Mae Brown (died 2026), African American mathematician.
  • October 31 – Michael Collins (died 2021), American astronaut.
  • November 11 – Mildred Dresselhaus, née Spiewak (died 2017), American nanotechnologist.
  • November 14 – Ed White (died in training accident 1967), American astronaut.
  • December 17 – Dorothy Rowe, née Conn (died 2019), Australian psychologist.
  • December 30
  • Roy Yorke Calne (died 2024), English surgeon, pioneer of transplantation.
  • Tu Youyou, Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.

Deaths

  • January 13 – Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti (born 1864), British-born electrical engineer and inventor.
  • January 19 – Frank P. Ramsey (born 1903), English mathematician (jaundice).
  • August 6 – Joseph Le Bel (born 1847), French chemist.
  • August 15 – Florian Cajori (born 1859), Swiss-born American historian of mathematics.
  • August 18 – Gabrielle Howard (born 1876), British plant physiologist.
  • October 15
  • Herbert Henry Dow (born 1866), Canadian American industrial chemist.
  • E. H. "Chinese" Wilson (born 1876), English plant collector.
  • September 1 – Peeter Põld (born 1878), Estonian politician and pedagogical scientist.
  • October 27 – Ellen Hayes (born 1851), American mathematician and astronomer.
  • November 5 – Christiaan Eijkman (born 1858), Dutch physiologist.
  • December 25 – Albertina Carlsson (born 1848), Swedish zoologist.

References