SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 1945- 1968

1945: NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICINE AND PHYSIOLOGY WAS AWARDED JOINTLY TO SIR ALEXANDER FLEMING, ERNST BORIS CHAIN AND SIR HOWARD WALTER FLOREY

Sir Scot Alexander Fleming (a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist) discovered penicillin based on careful study as well as accidental factors. He served as a military doctor during the First World War and he observed that antiseptics only temporarily cured the wounded soldiers. Later in his laboratory he realized that same samples of microbe culture, which he had thrown away, showed a kind of mould fighting bacteria.

That fact led him, after much research, to discover a fungus, penicillin, which could fight bacteria.

Because of this discovery and its curative effect in various infectious diseases, in 1945, he was awarded together with Ernst Boris Chain (a German-born British biochemist) and Sir Howard Walter Florey (an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist) the Nobel prize for Medicine and Physiology.

1953: THE DISCOVERY OF THE STRUCTURE OF DNA

On April 25, James Watson and Francis Crick, working together at Cambridge, formally announced that they had determined the structure of DNA as a double- helix polymer or a spiral of two DNA strands, each containing a long chain of monomer nucleotides, wound around each other. According to their findings, DNA replicates itself by being separated into individual strands, each of which becomes the template for a new double helix.

The explanation of the way the structure of DNA determines particular genetic choices, is considered to be the most important discovery of the 20th century. It allows scientists to acquire a better understanding of life genetics and of certain hereditary diseases. DNA conveys all the genetic information of a cell and carries them from one generation to another.

Nine years later, in 1962, Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Maurice Wilkins, for solving a fundamental mystery of science–how it was possible for genetic instructions to be held inside organisms and passed from generation to generation.

Half a century later, important new implications of this contribution to science are still coming to light.

1954: FOUNDATION OF CERN

On 29th September 1954 the convection for the creation of the biggest nuclear research center known as CERN (French name “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”) was signed by 12 at first states- founders, among which Greece as well.

The laboratory is today equipped with the biggest particle accelerator, cyclotron and in the beginning it was engaged in studying atomic nucleus, but soon it began to deal with the study of interactions between subatomic particles.

Its main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed in the field of high-energy physics.

CERN operates a network of six accelerators and a decelerator. Each machine in the chain increases the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or to the next more powerful accelerator.

Nowadays around 10000 scientists and engineers from 500 universities from all over the world and of 80 different nationalities are employed in the CERN.

1956: THE INVENTION OF VIDEO

In 1956 Russian engineer Alexander Poniatoff working in for the American company AMPEX, which he had set up himself, managed to record an electronic signal of picture reflection, directing in an electromagnetic way, elementary magnetic particles on a tape together with the sound of the picture and he presented the first ever video recorder: VR-1000. The same year CBS broadcast the first ever recorded program.

Ampex kept its lead in the market for professional magnetic recording of video for half a century and global electronics giants had to use Poniatoff’s patents to produce home video equipment.

1957: LAUNCH OF “SPUTNIK 1”

On 4th October 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite in elliptical orbit around earth in purpose to study the environment beyond the atmosphere of the earth. Its name was Sputnik 1 and it was the first of a number of satellites under this name.

It was no bigger than a ball with a diameter of 58cm and weighted about 83kg.

That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments and marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race, a great part of the Cold War.

Nowadays there are tens of geosynchronous satellites (satellites with an orbital period the same as the Earth's rotation period) so that they seem to be motionless in the same area of the sky.

Satellites are often used for telecommunications, televised programs, whether forecasts and of course military purposes.

1960: BATHYSCAPHE “TRIESTE”

Apart from exploring space, man also desired to explore the depth of the ocean.

On 23rd January 1960, Swiss Jacques Piccard (son of Auguste Piccard -a scientist from Switzerland who had experimented with buoyancy methods for his balloon flights) boarded in his bathyscaphe named Trieste and descended in the deepest known part of the sea, the “Challenger Deep”, in the Mariana Trench near Guam island in the Pacific. He actually reached a depth of 10916 meters.

In the following years same other diving vessels were made, but sea bottom exploring was considered to be not important from both a financial and military point of view.

1961: THE FIRST MAN IN SPACE

April 12th is a huge day on space history. On that day in 1961, Russian pilot and cosmonaut, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his spacecraft “Vostok 1”. His short flight was the first huge man’s step to conquer space.

After his historic feat was announced, Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him across the Soviet Union and streets renamed in his honor.

From then on the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the U.S.A went in for competing with each other to conquer space earlier.

Yuri Gagarin died in 1968 in a routine jet-aircraft test flight. His ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall. The Yuri Gagarin Medal is awarded in his honor.

.

1963: THE INVENTION OF CASSETTE

In August 1963 Lou Ottens, a member of Philips company, presents an invention of his, in the Berlin radio exhibition. It is the “cassette”, which is mass produced next year. Its use was spread quickly as it was easy to use and could be used again many times. However, its success reached a pick quite later, during the eighties, with the use of “Walkman”.

Nowadays it has gone out of use as it has been replaced by digital visual storage means such as CD and DVD.