The year1941 inscience andtechnology involved some significant events, listed below.

• George Wells Beadle andEdward Lawrie Tatum publish "Genetic Control of Biochemical Reactions in Neurospora" which shows that specific genes code for specific proteins.^[1]
• John William Field developsField stain to detect malarial parasites.^[2]

• February 23 – Chemical element 94,plutonium, is first synthesized byGlenn T. Seaborg,Arthur C. Wahl,Joseph W. Kennedy andEmilio Segrè. It is kept secret until after theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as it is being developed for the firstatomic bombs.
• Folic acid is first isolated via extraction fromspinach leaves byHerschel K. Mitchell,Esmond E. Snell andRoger J. Williams at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.^[3]
• The first polyester fibre,polyethylene terephthalate (terylene), ispatented byJohn Rex Whinfield, James T. Dickson and their employer theCalico Printers' Association ofManchester, England.

• May 12 – German engineerKonrad Zuse presents theZ3, the world's first workingprogrammable,Turing complete, fully automatic computer, to an audience of aviation engineers in Berlin.
• John Vincent Atanasoff andClifford E. Berry develop theAtanasoff–Berry Computer.

• Charles Singer'sA Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century published in the U.K.

• Cahit Arf defines theArf invariant of a nonsingularquadratic form over a field ofcharacteristic 2.

• February 12 – Reserve ConstableAlbert Alexander, a sepsis patient at theRadcliffe Infirmary inOxford, becomes the first person treated withpenicillin intravenously, byHoward Florey's team, injected by Dr Charles Fletcher. He reacts positively but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.^[4]
• April –Birmingham Accident Hospital opens as the world's firsttrauma centre inBirmingham, England.^[5]
• The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics is first published in New York City byAlfred Gilman andLouis S. Goodman, pharmacologists at theYale School of Medicine.^[6]

• German mineralogistKarl Hugo Strunz'sMineralogische Tabellen introducesNickel–Strunz classification ofminerals.^[7]

• June – British scientistG. I. Taylor predicts the blast effects from anatomic bomb.^[8]
• June 28 –President of the United StatesFranklin D. Roosevelt signsExecutive Order 8807 creating theOffice of Scientific Research and Development withVannevar Bush as its director. The office is charged with production of an atomic bomb.^[9]
• October 1 – Artificialnuclear transmutation ofmercury intogold byfast neutrons is reported inPhysical Review.^[10]
• December 2 – Firstcalutron operated.

• May 15 – First flight of theGloster E.28/39, the first Britishjet aircraft.
• September 1 – Therocket-poweredinterceptor aircraftMesserschmitt Me 163 Komet is first flown.
• November – PrototypeAI Mk. VIII radar, the first operationalmicrowave-frequencyaircraft interception (AI) radar, introduced by the BritishRoyal Air Force.

• February 20 – PolishmicrobiologistLudwik Hirszfeld, his wife, Hanka, and daughter are forced to move into theWarsaw ghetto; here for two years he organizes anti-epidemic measures andvaccination campaigns againsttyphus andtyphoid, as well as conducting secret medical courses.

• July 4 –Frederick Lindemann is raised to theBritish peerage as Baron Cherwell.^[11]

• January 16 –András Sárközy,Hungarianmathematician.
• January 24 –Dan Shechtman,Israeli winner of theNobel Prize in Chemistry (2011).
• February 12 –Dennis Sullivan, American mathematician.
• March 10 –George P. Smith, Americanbiochemist, winner of theNobel Prize in Chemistry (2018).
• March 14 –Michael Berry, Englishmathematical physicist.
• March 26 –Richard Dawkins, Britishevolutionary biologist.
• March 27 –Simon Campbell, British chemist.
• April 23 –Ray Tomlinson (died2016), American computer scientist.
• April 28 –Karl Barry Sharpless, American chemist, twice winner of theNobel Prize in Chemistry (2001, 2022).^[12]
• May 25 –Uta Frith, German-born Britishdevelopmental psychologist.
• June 20 –Robert D. Acland (died2016), English-bornmicrosurgeon.
• July 23 –Pierre Agostini, Frenchexperimental physicist, winner of theNobel Prize in Physics (2023).
• August 2 –Jules A. Hoffmann,Luxembourg-born winner of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2011).
• August 22 –Peter Murray-Rust, Britishchemist andHerman Skolnik Award winner.
• September 2 –Shasanka Mohan Roy,Indianquantum physicist.
• September 9 –Dennis Ritchie (died2011), Americancomputer scientist.
• September 10 –Stephen Jay Gould (died2002), Americanpaleontologist/evolutionist.
• December 22 –M. Stanley Whittingham, English-born solid-state chemist, winner of theNobel Prize in Chemistry (2019).
• Vivian Pinn, Americanphysician.

• February 21 – SirFrederick Banting (born1891), Canadian discoverer ofinsulin, winner of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1923) (military aircraft accident).
• April 5 – SirNigel Gresley (born1876), English steam locomotive engineer (Flying Scotsman andMallard).
• April 13 –Annie Jump Cannon (born1863), American astronomer.
• April 17 –Hans Driesch (born1867), German biologist and philosopher.
• June 1 –Hans Berger (born1873), German neurologist.
• June 6 –Louis Chevrolet (born1878),Swiss-born race driver and automobile builder in the United States.
• July 11 – SirArthur Evans (born1851), Englisharchaeologist.
• July 26 –Henri Lebesgue (born1875), French mathematician.
• August 14 –Paul Sabatier (born1854), French chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1912).
• August 30 –Peder Oluf Pedersen (born1874), Danish engineer and physicist.
• September 9 –Hans Spemann (born1869), German embryologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1935).
• November 10 –Carrie Derick (born1862, Canadian botanist and geneticist.
• November 18 –Walther Nernst (born1864), Germanphysical chemist.
• November 22 –Kurt Koffka (born1886, German-born psychologist.
• December 11 –Émile Picard (born1856), French mathematician.
• December 29 –Tullio Levi-Civita (born1873), Italian mathematician.

• 1941 in science
• 20th century in science
• 1940s in science

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