Overview of the events of 1923 in science
The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Aeronautics
Astronomy and space science
Biology
- Karl von Frisch publishes "Über die 'Sprache' der Bienen. Eine tierpsychologische Untersuchung" ("On the 'language' of bees: an examination of animal psychology").
Chemistry
Cryptography
Electronics
Exploration
Medicine
Paleontology
Physics
Technology
- Herbert Grove Dorsey invents the first practical fathometer.
Awards
Births
- January 1 – Daniel Gorenstein (died 1992), American mathematician.
- February 13 – Chuck Yeager (died 2020), American pilot.
- February 14 – Doris Calloway, née Howes (died 2001), American nutritionist.
- February 20 – Helen Murray Free (died 2021), American medical chemist.
- March 4 – Patrick Moore (died 2012), English astronomer.
- March 9 – Walter Kohn (died 2016), Viennese-born physicist.
- March 10 – Val Logsdon Fitch (died 2015), American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- April 1 – Brigitte Askonas (died 2013), Viennese-born British immunologist.
- April 2 – G. Spencer-Brown (died 2016), English mathematician.
- April 16 – Stewart Adams (died 2019), English pharmaceutical chemist.
- April 21 – Albert (Ab) C. Perdeck (died 2009), Dutch ornithologist.
- April 23 – Walter Pitts (died 1969), American logician and cognitive psychologist.
- July 5 – Ivo Pitanguy (died 2016), Brazilian plastic surgeon.
- July 12 – René Favaloro (died 2000), Argentine cardiac surgeon.
- July 23 – Ulf Grenander (died 2016), Swedish-born mathematician.
- July 28 – Xia Peisu (died 2014), Chinese computer scientist.
- July 31 – Stephanie Kwolek (died 2014), American polymer chemist.
- August 19 – Edgar F. Codd (died 2003), English-born computer scientist.
- September 9 – Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (died 2008), American virologist.
- September 13 – Miroslav Holub (died 1998), Czech immunologist and poet.
- September 26 – John Ertle Oliver (died 2011), American geophysicist.
- October 29 – Carl Djerassi (died 2015), Viennese-born chemist.
- November 8 – Jack Kilby (died 2005), American electrical engineer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- November 18 – Alan Shepard (died 1998), American astronaut.
- December 13 – Philip Warren Anderson (died 2020), American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- December 15 – Freeman Dyson (died 2020), English-born theoretical physicist.
Deaths
- February 10 – Wilhelm Röntgen (born 1845), German physicist, discoverer of X-rays, Nobel laureate.
- February 24 – Edward Morley (born 1838), American chemist.
- March 8 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals (born 1837), Dutch physicist.
- March 27 – James Dewar (born 1842), Scottish-born chemist.
- April 11 – Mary Treat (born 1830), American naturalist.
- July 16 – Sydney Mary Thompson (born 1847), Irish-born geologist and botanist.
- August 23 – Hertha Ayrton (born 1854), English electrical engineer.
- October 3 – Kadambini Ganguly (born 1861), Indian physician.
- December 2 – Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen (born 1834), English surveyor, geologist and naturalist.
- December 7 – Sir Frederick Treves (born 1853), English-born surgeon.
- December 27 – Gustave Eiffel (born 1832), French structural engineer.