1977 in science

The year 1977 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• September 5 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay.
• 2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, discovered by Charlie Kowal.

Medicine

• January 18 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious "legionnaire's disease."
• September 11 – The last "wild" infection of smallpox is reported in Somalia.^[1]

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck van Vleck
  • Chemistry – Ilya Prigogine
  • Medicine – Roger Guillemin, Andrew V. Schally, Rosalyn Yalow
• Turing Award – John Backus

Births

Deaths

• June 16 – Wernher von Braun (b. 1912), physicist and engineer.

References

1. ⇧ Reference supporting eradication in 1977: Reference: Waldman, Thomas A. (2003). Immunotherapy: past, present and future. Nature Medicine 9, 269–277.