1972 in science

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The year 1972 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Contents

1 Astronomy and space exploration
2 Biology
3 Computer science
4 Ecology
5 Mathematics
6 Medicine
7 Technology
8 Awards
9 Births
10 Deaths
11 References

Astronomy and space exploration

January 5 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
February 4 - Mariner 9 sends pictures from Mars.
February 21 - The Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
March 2 - Launch of Pioneer 10 spacecraft.
April 16 - Apollo 16 launched.
July 23 - The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.

Biology

Socorro Doves (Zenaida graysoni) last seen in the wild. The species precariously survives in captivity. A reintroduction program is being prepared.

Computer science

April 6 - Cray Research founded.^[1]
October - The First International Conference on Computer Communications is held in Washington, D.C. and hosts the first public demonstration of ARPAnet, a precursor of the Internet.

Ecology

James Lovelock first refers to the Gaia hypothesis in print.^[2]

Mathematics

Daniel Quillen formulates higher algebraic K-theory.
Daniel Gorenstein announces a 16-step program for completing the classification of finite simple groups.^[3]

Medicine

January 31 - Immunosuppressive effect of ciclosporin discovered by a team at Sandoz, Basel, under Hartmann F. Stähelin.
Archie Cochrane publishes Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services.

Technology

February 1 - The first scientific hand-held calculator (labeled Hewlett-Packard, later designated the HP-35) is introduced, at a price of $795.00

Awards

Births

April 5 - Nima Arkani-Hamed, Canadian-American theoretical physicist.

Deaths

October 1 - Louis Leakey (b. 1903), British paleontologist.

References

^ "Cray Timeline". Cray. http://www.cray.com/Assets/PDF/about/CrayTimeline.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
^ Lovelock, J. E. (August 1972). "Gaia as seen through the atmosphere". Atmospheric Environment 6 (8): 579–580. doi:10.1016/0004-6981(72)90076-5. ISSN 0004-6981. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B757C-48CG0KX-CB&_user=126524&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F1972&_rdoc=8&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_origin=browse&_zone=rslt_list_item&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%2312895%231972%23999939991%23419306%23FLP%23display%23Volume)&_cdi=12895&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=13&_acct=C000010360&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=126524&md5=9b441421e985adcac4d2a7c871f01466&searchtype=a.
^ Gorenstein, D. (1979). "The classification of finite simple groups. I. Simple groups and local analysis". American Mathematical Society Bulletin, New Series 1 (1): 43–199. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1979-14551-8. ISSN 0002-9904. MR 513750. Appendix.