Overview of the events of 1977 in science
The year 1977 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Astronomy and space exploration
Biology
The first complete genome is sequenced - a tiny bacterium-infecting virus called Phi X 174 , with just 11 genes, and a little over 5000 base pairs.[ 1]
Carl Woese and George E. Fox classify archaea as a new, separate domain of life.[ 2]
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves LAL (Limulus amebocyte lysate ) for testing drugs, products and devices that come in contact with the blood. Prior to this date, a much slower and more expensive test on rabbits has been used for this purpose.
October 22 – Nothomyrmecia , the "dinosaur ant", is rediscovered, in Poochera, South Australia , more than 45 years after it is first described.
Chemistry
Computer science
January – The Commodore PET is announced at Winter CES. The first units are delivered to customers in October; back-orders for the popular system last for months and in early 1978 Commodore discontinues the 4KB model. The PET is the launch computer for Commodore which will later gain prominence with the Commodore 64 in 1982, the single most produced home computer with over 17 million produced.[ 4]
June 5 – The first Apple II home computers (largely designed by Steve Wozniak ) go on sale in the U.S., among the first successful mass-produced microcomputers .[ 5] [ 6]
August 3 – The TRS-80 Model I is announced at a press conference in New York City. Radio Shack begin sales in September, and despite a sales forecast of only 3,000 units per year, over 10,000 are sold in just one and a half months. Radio Shack will later develop an entire line of computers over the following 20 years.
September – The Atari 2600 home video game console is released.
Cryptography
History of science
Roy Porter publishes The Making of Geology: Earth Science in Britain 1660-1815 .
Mathematics
Medicine
Oceanography
Physics
Technology
Awards
Births
Deaths
References
^ "Sequencing technologies" . The Human Genome . Wellcome Trust . Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012 .
^ Woese, Carl R.; Fox, George E. (1977). "Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: The primary kingdoms" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 74 (11). United States: 5088–90. Bibcode :1977PNAS...74.5088W . doi :10.1073/pnas.74.11.5088 . PMC 432104 . PMID 270744 .
^ Sanger, F.; Nicklen, S.; Coulson, A. R. (1977). "DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 74 (12). United States: 5463–5467. Bibcode :1977PNAS...74.5463S . doi :10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463 . PMC 431765 . PMID 271968 .
^ "Commodore 64 computer" .
^ Long, Tony (June 5, 2007). "June 5, 1977: From a Little Apple a Mighty Industry Grows" . Wired . Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved June 2, 2009 .
^ Reimer, Jeremy (December 14, 2005). "Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures" . Ars Technica . Retrieved May 25, 2010 .
^ Gardner, Martin (November 1977). "Mathematical Games" (PDF) . Scientific American . 237 (5): 18–28. Bibcode :1977SciAm.237e..18G . doi :10.1038/scientificamerican1177-18 . Rev. repr. in: Gardner, Martin (2001). The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes and Problems . New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02023-6 .
^ Furstenberg, Hillel (1977). "Ergodic behavior of diagonal measures and a theorem of Szemerédi on arithmetic progressions" . Journal d'Analyse Mathématique . 31 : 204–256. doi :10.1007/BF02813304 . MR 0498471 . S2CID 120917478 .
^ Weiner, Joel L. (1977). "Global properties of spherical curves" . Journal of Differential Geometry . 12 (3): 425–434. doi :10.4310/jdg/1214434093 . MR 0514446 .
^ Damadian, R.; Goldsmith, M.; Minkoff, L. (1977). "NMR in cancer: XVI. Fonar image of the live human body". Physiological Chemistry and Physics . 9 (1): 97–100. PMID 909957 .
^ Hinshaw, D. S.; Bottomley, P. A.; Holland, G. N. (1977). "Radiographic thin-section image of the human wrist by nuclear magnetic resonance". Nature . 270 (5639): 722–723. Bibcode :1977Natur.270..722H . doi :10.1038/270722a0 . PMID 593393 . S2CID 4183336 .
^ "First MRI and ultrasound scanning" . Benjamin S. Beck. Archived from the original on November 20, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2011 .
^ "The "Indomitable" MRI" . Smithsonian Institution . Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2011 .
^ "Biographical Sketch of Andreas Gruentzig (1939–1985)" . Angioplasty.Org . Retrieved November 8, 2011 .
^ Meier, Bernhard; Bachmann, Dölf; Lüscher, Thomas F. (February 8, 2003). "25 years of coronary angioplasty: almost a fairy tale" . The Lancet . 361 (9356): 527. doi :10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12470-1 . PMID 12583964 . S2CID 19237951 . Retrieved November 8, 2011 .
^ Waldman, Thomas A. (2003). "Immunotherapy: past, present and future" (PDF) . Nature Medicine . 9 (3): 269–277. doi :10.1038/nm0303-269 . PMID 12612576 . S2CID 9745527 . Retrieved March 10, 2005 .
^ Herb, S.W.; Hom, D.; Lederman, L.; et al. (1977). "Observation of a Dimuon Resonance at 9.5 GeV in 400-GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions" . Physical Review Letters . 39 (5): 252. Bibcode :1977PhRvL..39..252H . doi :10.1103/PhysRevLett.39.252 . OSTI 1155396 .