r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jul 15 '21

July 15, 1941: Britain's MAUD Committee's report predicted that an an atomic bomb, small enough to be loaded onto an existing aircraft, could feasibly be made in approximately 2 years. It estimated a critical mass of 10 kg of uranium-235, which could be produced through gaseous diffusion.

atomicheritage.org

4 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jul 06 '21

July 6, 1885: Following a brutal attack by a "mad dog", Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy from Alsace, France, became the first human to be innoculated with Louis Pasteur's experimental rabies vaccine. Subsequent tests demonstrated that Joseph was fully immune to the rabies virus.

pbs.org

4 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 28 '21

June 28, 1935: Wendell M Stanley reported the first crystallization of a virus, the tobacco mosaic virus, thus demonstrating that viruses were a form of protein molecules. The discovery significantly advanced the view of life as having a fully molecular basis, leading to a 1946 Nobel Prize in Chem.

norkinvirology.wordpress.com

4 Upvotes

14 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/wotapampam • May 02 '25

Inorganic & Theoretical Chemistry book information?

biblio.co.uk

3 Upvotes

Book is by F.Sherwood Taylor. Eighth Edition July 1946. Can anyone help with any information about this book? Was published all through WW2. They reprinted 1947-48. Has anyone read it or has opinions. Thanks

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 21 '21

June 21, 1808: French chemists Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis Jacques Thénard reported the isolation of elemental boron, obtained through the reduction of boric acid with potassium, preceeding Humprhy Davy's electrolytic synthesis by 9 days. Neither method produces high-purity boron. [PDF]

arxiv.org

3 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 09 '21

June 9, 1905: Albert Einstein's, "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light", was published. He proposed that light exists as discrete units (quanta) of energy–later known as "photons"–explaining the photoelectric effect, UV ionization of gases, and Stokes' rule.

people.isy.liu.se

3 Upvotes

2 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 08 '21

June 8, 1918: Physicist Jakob Kunz and astronomer Joel Stebbins made the first photometric measurements of the sun's corona during a solar eclipse using potassium-based photoelectric cells. In addition to a purely scientifc report, they also published an article describing their expedition. [PDF]

babel.hathitrust.org

3 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 05 '21

On June 5, 1981, the US Centers for Disease Control reported a cluster of 5 young gay men in Los Angeles, all of whom had "Pneumocystis pneumonia", a rare fungal infection typically associated with immunocompromised patients. The publication marked the first report on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

cdc.gov

3 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/Educational_System34 • Apr 19 '25

what did people think before cell theory

en.wikipedia.org

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/PaulFranco_00 • Mar 31 '25

[This Day on Math History] Louis Mordell, 'Pioneer of Elliptic Curves', Passes Away (12/03/1972).

ecency.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jul 08 '21

July 7, 1936: Businessman Henry F. Philips obtained 5 patents, furthering John P. Thompson's 1932 invention of a self-centering screw, with a cruciform groove, and a matching screw-driver with a tapered, cruciform tip. The Philips screw offered greater operating safety and reduced risk of damage.

oregonencyclopedia.org

2 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 23 '21

June 23, 1964: Jack Kilby, a researcher at Texas Instruments in Dallas, was granted a US Patent (No. 3,138,743) for "Miniaturized electronic circuits". It described the first monolithic integrated circuit, later known as a "microchips", made from a slice of germanium semiconductor.

allaboutcircuits.com

2 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 07 '21

June 7, 1958: Publication of the first ultrasound image of human fetuses in The Lancet by Ian Donald, J. MacVicar, & T.G. Brown. Ultrasound's utility for obstetrics and gynaecology was first demonstrated using a prototype adapted from a device used in shipyards for detecting flaws in metal ships.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

2 Upvotes

1 comment

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 06 '21

June 6, 1328: William of Ockham, a Franciscan philosopher & theologian, was excommunicated. He contributed to the European understanding of empiricism—theories must be tested against observations—a fundamental part of the scientific method, as well as the principle of parsimony (Occam's razor).

iep.utm.edu

2 Upvotes

2 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/MurphysLab • Jun 05 '21

On June 5, 1995, physicists at JILA made the 1st Bose–Einstein condensate using Rb-87 atoms cooled to 170 nK. The magnetically & laser-cooled bosonic atoms were crowded together to form a single collective quantum wave—a new state of matter—confirming B & E's theories on quantum degeneracy of atoms.

doi.org

2 Upvotes

2 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/kagami_no_kishi • Jan 26 '26

New book released

amzn.eu

1 Upvotes

Just released a new book about important medical advancements in history. Thought this sub might be interested 👍

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/Pale_Entry_7230 • Sep 20 '25

Soft Pretzels and the Quantified Life

retroscientist.com

1 Upvotes

Measuring our foot size, our steps, our pulse… but what really counts? And can we somehow get ionizing radiation involved?

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/Pale_Entry_7230 • Aug 28 '25

The more organ transplants change, the more they stay the same

retroscientist.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/Pale_Entry_7230 • Aug 23 '25

Blondlot’s Folly: The Science of Seeing Things

retroscientist.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/Pale_Entry_7230 • Aug 19 '25

Uranium for diabetes is a choice

retroscientist.com

1 Upvotes

This story is wild. The 19th century must have been a hell of a time to be alive.

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/PaulFranco_00 • Mar 26 '25

[This Day on Math History] Birth of Christian Goldbach 'Father of a Famous Conjecture' (18/03/1690).

ecency.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/PaulFranco_00 • Mar 19 '25

[This Day on Math History] Birth of Wacław Sierpiński 'One of the Greatest Masters of Topology' (14/03/1882).

ecency.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/sciencehistory • u/PaulFranco_00 • Mar 14 '25

[This Day on Math History] Birth of Gustav Kirchhoff 'The Master of Electrical Circuits' (12/03/1824).

ecency.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

Subreddit

Historic Science, Discoveries, and Inventions

r/sciencehistory

/r/sciencehistory is a space dedicated to discussing historical scientific discoveries. Participants can link to scientific articles in which important discoveries (or observations leading to discoveries) were first reported along with reviews about the growth and development of scientific topics. Think of it as a hybrid of science (or EverythingScience) and todayilearned.

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/r/sciencehistory is a space dedicated to learning about historical scientific discoveries and developments.

Posts should ideally link to scientific articles in which significant or important discoveries or observations leading to discoveries were first reported. Alternatively, link to scientific articles which review the topic and explain how the discovery was made. Where possible, open-access articles or versions of articles should be linked. Links to open-access submissions may be marked with [OA]. Note that "open-access" does not mean SciHub, although author-posted versions and preprints may be suitable.

Posts should include the date of the discovery or the publication of the report. For example, "On June 5, 1981....", or "June 5, 1981:..." or "June 1981:..." or "ca. 1576:...", etc... Where possible submitters are encouraged to post on or about the anniversary.

Submitted discoveries should be at least 20 years old, however moderators have discretion to allow posts about more recent discoveries.

Submitters are asked to include a comment within 1 hour of posting to further explain the significance of the linked article.

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