1917 in science

The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

• September 3 – French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d'Hérelle, working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, announces his discovery of a bacteriophage. ^[1]
• D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form is published.

Mathematics

• Paul Ehrenfest gives a conditional principle for a three-dimensional space.

Medicine

• March 23 – Canadian physician Charles A. Hunter first describes the rare genetic disorder Hunter syndrome. ^[2]
• Japanese ophthalmologisdt Shinobu Ishihara publishes his color perception test. ^[3]
• Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg discovers malarial pyrotherapy for general paresis of the insane.

Physics

• Albert Einstein introduces the idea of stimulated radiation emission.
• Nuclear fission: Ernest Rutherford (at the Victoria University of Manchester) achieves nuclear transmutation of nitrogen into oxygen, using alpha particles directed at nitrogen ¹⁴N + α → ¹⁷O + p, the first observation of a nuclear reaction, in which he also discovers and names the proton. ^[4]

Technology

• September 13 – Release in the United States of the first film made in Technicolor System 1, a two-color process, The Gulf Between .
• Alvin D. and Kelvin Keech introduce the "banjulele-banjo", an early form of the banjolele.
• Gilbert Vernam jointly reinvents the one-time pad encryption system.

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Physics – Charles Glover Barkla (announced 12 November 1918; presented 1 June 1920)
  • Chemistry – not awarded
  • Medicine – not awarded

Births

• January 19 – Graham Higman (died 2008), English mathematician.
• January 25 – Ilya Prigogine (died 2003), Russian-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• February 14 – Herbert A. Hauptman (died 2011), American mathematical biophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• March 23 – Howard McKern (died 2009), Australian analytical and organic chemist.
• March 24 – John Kendrew (died 1997), English molecular biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• April 10 – Robert Burns Woodward (died 1979), American organic chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• April 18 – Brian Harold Mason (died 2009), New Zealand-born geochemist and mineralogist who was one of the pioneers in the study of meteorites.
• May 14 – W. T. Tutte (died 2002), English-born mathematician and cryptanalyst.
• June 1 – William S. Knowles (died 2012), American winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• June 2 – Heinz Sielmann (died 2006), German zoological filmmaker.
• June 15 – John Fenn (died 2010), American analytical chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• July 1 – Humphry Osmond (died 2004), English-born psychiatrist.
• July 15 – Walter S. Graf (died 2015), American cardiologist and pioneer of paramedic emergency medical services.
• July 22 – H. Boyd Woodruff (died 2017), American microbiologist.
• August 21 – Xu Shunshou (died 1968), Chinese aeronautical engineer.
• September 23 – Asima Chatterjee, née Mookerjee (died 2006), Indian organic chemist.
• October 2 – Christian de Duve (died 2013), English-born Belgian biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• October 8 – Rodney Porter (died 1985), English biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• November 22 – Andrew Huxley (died 2012), English winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• December 9 – James Rainwater (died 1986), American winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• December 16 – Arthur C. Clarke (died 2008), English-born science fiction author and inventor.
• December 20 – David Bohm (died 1992), American-born theoretical physicist, philosopher and neuropsychologist.

Deaths

• February 11 – Laura Forster (born 1858), Australian physician, died on war service.
• March 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin (born 1838), German founder of the Zeppelin airship company.
• March 31 – Emil von Behring (born 1854), German physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
• July 27 – Emil Theodor Kocher (born 1841), Swiss surgeon, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1909.
• August 3 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (born 1849), German mathematician.
• December 17 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (born 1836), English physician.

References

1. d'Hérelle, F. (1917). "Sur un microbe invisible antagoniste des bacilles dysentériques" (PDF). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris. 165: 373–5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
2. Hunter, Charles (1917). "A Rare Disease in Two Brothers". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine . 10 (Sect Study Dis Child). London: 104–116. doi:10.1177/003591571701001833. PMC   2018097 . PMID   19979883 . Retrieved 2025-11-24.
3. Ishihara, S. (1917). Tests for Colour-Blindness. Handaya, Tokyo: Hongo Harukicho.
4. Brewerton, Emma (2016-12-12). "Ernest Rutherford". New Zealand History. Retrieved 2017-06-16.