1924 in science

The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• The Einstein Tower near Potsdam, Germany, designed by Erich Mendelsohn, becomes operational as an astrophysical observatory.
• 1056 Azalea is discovered.

Physics

• S. N. Bose and Albert Einstein publish papers in Zeitschrift für Physik applying Bose–Einstein statistics to light quanta and to atomic models and predicting existence of the Bose–Einstein condensate.
• E. C. Stoner publishes a paper^[1] pointing out that for a given value of the principal quantum number (n), the number of energy levels of a single electron in the alkali metal spectra in an external magnetic field, where all degenerate energy levels are separated, is equal to the number of electrons in the closed shell of the rare gases for the same value of n. This leads to discovery of the Pauli exclusion principle.

Technology

• February 5 - Hourly time signals from Royal Greenwich Observatory are broadcast for the first time.
• February - John Logie Baird sends rudimentary television pictures over a short distance.^[2]

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics: Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
  • Medicine: Willem Einthoven

Births

• June 24 - James W. Black, pharmacologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1988) (d. 2010).
• November 20 - Benoît Mandelbrot, mathematician, originator of fractal geometry (d. 2010).

Deaths

• February 11 - Jacques Loeb, physiologist (b. 1859).
• April 4 - Arnold Pick, neurologist (b. 1851).
• April 24 - G. Stanley Hall, psychologist (b. 1844).
• September 24 - Alexandre Lacassagne, forensic scientist (b. 1843).

References