The year1932 inscience andtechnology involved some significant events, listed below.

• August 10 – A 5.1 kgchondrite-typemeteorite breaks into fragments and strikes earth near the town ofArchie, Missouri.
• Estonian astronomerErnst Öpik postulates thatlong-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud (the Öpik–Oort cloud) at the outermost edge of theSolar System.^[1]

• EnglishgeneticistC. D. Darlington publishesRecent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics ofchromosomal crossover^[2] and its role inevolutionary science.
• English geneticistJ. B. S. Haldane publishesThe Causes of Evolution, unifying the findings of Mendeliangenetics with those of evolutionary science.
• AmericanphysiologistWalter Bradford Cannon publishesThe Wisdom of the Body, developing and popularising the concept ofhomeostasis.
• A flock ofSoay sheep is translocated fromSoay toHirta (also in the depopulatedarchipelago ofSt Kilda, Scotland) by conservationistJohn Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute.
• Theheath hen becomes extinct in North America.

• Braggite is first described, the first mineral discovered with the assistance ofX rays.^[3][4]

• Menger-Nöbeling theorem.
• John von Neumann makes foundational contributions toergodic theory in a series of papers.^[5][6][7]
• Rózsa Péter presents the results of her paper onrecursive function theory, "Rekursive Funktionen," to theInternational Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich, Switzerland.
• December –Marian Rejewski of thePolishBiuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics –permutation group theory – to breaking theGerman armed forces'Enigma machine ciphers.^[8][9]

• January 5 – Thepathology ofCushing's syndrome is first described byHarvey Cushing.^[10][11]
• AmericangastroenterologistBurrill Bernard Crohn and colleagues describe a series of patients with "regional ileitis", inflammation of theterminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known asCrohn's disease.^[12]
• Grace Medes discovers tyrosinosis, themetabolic disorder later known asType I tyrosinemia.
• Swedish neurosurgeonHerbert Olivecrona performs the first surgical excision of an intracranialarteriovenous malformation.
• Rudolph Schindler introduces the first semi-flexiblegastroscope, in Germany.^[13]
• Commencement of the 40-yearTuskegee syphilis experiment by theU.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreatedsyphilis in poorAfrican-Americansharecroppers inAlabama without theirinformed consent.^[14]
• First published use of the termMedical genetics, in an article byMadge Thurlow Macklin.^[15]
• Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure forstreptococcus

• Albert Szent-Györgyi andCharles Glen King identifyascorbic acid as ananti-scorbutic.
• December 25 –IG Farben file apatent application in Germany for the medical application of the firstsulfonamide drug, Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730; which will be marketed asProntosil), followingGerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as anantibiotic at the conglomerate'sBayer laboratories.^[16]

• April 14 –John Cockcroft andErnest Walton focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.
• May –Radio Luxembourg begins high-poweredlongwave test transmissions aimed directly at theBritish Isles which prove, inadvertently, to be the first radio modification of theionosphere.^[17]
• May 10 –James Chadwick discovers theneutron.^[18][19]Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept ofisospin.^[20]
• August 2 – Thepositron is observed byCarl Anderson.^[21]
• November 1 – TheKennedy–Thorndike experiment is published, showing that measured time as well as length is affected by motion, in accordance with the theory ofspecial relativity.^[22]
• John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework forquantum mechanics inMathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik.
• Zero-length springs are invented, revolutionizingseismometers andgravimeters.

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics –Werner Karl Heisenberg
  • Chemistry –Irving Langmuir
  • Medicine – SirCharles Sherrington,Edgar Adrian

• January 16 –Dian Fossey (murdered1985),Americanprimatologist.
• February 7 –Alfred Worden (died2020), Americanastronaut.
• February 10 –Robert Taylor (died2017), American computer scientist.
• March 10 –Udupi Ramachandra Rao (died 2017),Indianspace scientist.
• March 14 –Joseph Bryan Nelson (died2015), Britishornithologist.
• March 15 –Alan Bean (died2018), American astronaut.
• March 21 –Walter Gilbert, American chemist andNobel laureate
• March 24 –Lodewijk van den Berg (died2022), Dutch-born American chemical engineer and astronaut
• April 26 –Michael Smith (died2000), English-bornbiochemist, recipient of the 1993Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 22 –Robert Spitzer (died 2015), Americanpsychiatrist.
• July 10 –Ioan Pușcaș (died 2015), Romanian gastroenterologist.
• July 31 –John Searle, American philosopher of the mind and language.
• August 4 –Frances E. Allen (died 2020), American computer scientist,Turing Award winner.
• August 15 –Robert L. Forward (died2002), Americanscience fiction author andphysicist.
• August 18 –Luc Montagnier (died2022), Frenchvirologist and joint recipient of the 2008Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of thehuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
• September 18 –Nikolai Rukavishnikov (died 2002), Russiancosmonaut.
• September 29 –Rainer Weiss, German-born American physicist, joint recipient of the 2017Nobel Prize in Physics for detection ofgravitational waves.
• October 1 –Biswa Ranjan Nag (died2004), Indian physicist.
• October 3 –Terence English,South African-borncardiac surgeon.
• October 13 –John G. Thompson, Americanmathematician.
• November 6 –François Englert, Belgiantheoretical physicist, joint recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of theHiggs mechanism.
• December 15 –John Meurig Thomas (died2020),Welsh physical chemist.

• February 29 –George Claridge Druce (born1850), Englishbotanist.
• March 14 –George Eastman (born1854), Americanphotography pioneer (suicide).
• April 3 –Wilhelm Ostwald (born1853),Baltic Germanchemist.
• April 20 –Giuseppe Peano (born1858), Italianmathematician.
• May 29 –Cuthbert Christy (born1863), English medical investigator,zoologist and explorer.
• June 21 –Major Taylor (born1878),African American racing cyclist.
• July 9 –King Camp Gillette (born1855), Americaninventor.
• July 14 –Fran Jesenko (born1875), Slovene botanist andplant geneticist.
• July 22 –Reginald Fessenden (born1866), Canadian Americanradio broadcasting pioneer.
• August 9 –John Charles Fields (born 1863), Canadian mathematician.
• September 16 – SirRonald Ross (born1857), Britishphysiologist.
• November 12 – SirDugald Clerk (born1854), Scottish-bornmechanical engineer.

• 1932 in science
• 20th century in science
• 1930s in science

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