1917 in science

List of years in science (table)
... 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 ... 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 ... 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 ...
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

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

Biology

• D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's On Growth and Form is published.

Mathematics

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

Medicine

• Shinobu Ishihara publishes his color perception test.
• Julius Wagner-Jauregg discovers malarial pyrotherapy for general paresis of the insane.

Physics

• Albert Einstein introduces the idea of stimulated radiation emission.

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.

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 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.
• 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), founder of the Zeppelin airship company.
• March 31 – Emil Adolf von Behring (born 1854), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901.
• July 27 – Emil Theodor Kocher (born 1841), 1909 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• August 3 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (born 1849), German mathematician.
• December 17 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (born 1836), English physician.