1949 in science

The year 1949 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

January 26 – The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California, the largest aperture optical telescope in the world for 28 years, sees first light.
June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first mammal in space, in a U.S.-launched V-2 rocket, reaching an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) but dying on impact after a parachute failure.

Radiocarbon dating technique discovered by Willard Libby and his colleagues at the University of Chicago—work for which Libby will receive the Nobel Prize in 1960.
A group including Dorothy Hodgkin publish the three-dimensional molecular structure of penicillin, demonstrating that it contains a β-lactam ring.^[1]^[2]

April – Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester in England.
May 6 – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at University of Cambridge in England, to calculate a table of squares.^[3]

August 5 – Ambato earthquake in Ecuador, measuring 6.8 on the Richter magnitude scale.^[4]
Patomskiy crater in Siberia is discovered by Russian geologist Vadim Kolpakov.

The use of lithium salts to control mania is rediscovered by Australian psychiatrist John Cade, the first mood stabilizer.^[5]
First implant of intraocular lens, by Sir Harold Ridley
First Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, a self-report personality test, released.

Gilbert Ryle's book The Concept of Mind, a founding document in the philosophy of mind, is published.

Freeman Dyson demonstrates the equivalence of the formulations of quantum electrodynamics existing at this time,^[6] incidentally inventing the Dyson series.^[7]
The Lanczos tensor is introduced in general relativity by Cornelius Lanczos.^[8]
Pauli–Villars regularization is first published.^[9]

J. B. S. Haldane proposes the Darwin as a unit of evolutionary change.^[10]
Konrad Lorenz publishes King Solomon's Ring (Er redete mit dem Vieh, den Vögeln und den Fischen).

January 25 – Paul Nurse, English cell biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
February 1 – Alice Alldredge, Australian-born oceanographer.
February 17 – Peter Piot, Belgian microbiologist and epidemiologist.
February 19 – Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan(iel Paul) Bunten (died 1998), American software developer.
February 22 – Tullio Pozzan (died 2022), Italian biochemist.
March 28 – Michael W. Young, American geneticist and chronobiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
April 5 – Judith Resnik (died 1986), American astronaut.
April 18 – Yasumasa Kanada, Japanese mathematician.
May 24 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician.
May 26 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer.
June 2 – Heather Couper (died 2020), English astronomer.
July 23 – Andrew Odlyzko, Polish-born American mathematician.
August 31 – H. David Politzer, American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
November 6 – John Zarnecki, English space scientist
November 24 – Sally Davies, English Chief Medical Officer.
Michael Houghton, British-born virologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.