1922 | Insulin
Frederick G. Banting finds
that insulin, isolated from the
islets of Langerhans in the
pancreas, promises to cure
diabetes (10/28/22, p. 1 ). N
1920s
to animal reproduction is
reported ( 1/27/23, p. 1);
the next year it would be
formally named vitamin E
( 3/29/24, p. 4).
1924 | Waves/particles
Light may not be waves or
particles but instead act a bit
like both (2/16/24, p. 2).
1922 | X-ray mutations
X-rays can cause mutations
that are inherited by the next
generation — at least in fruit
flies (8/19/22, p. 1).
1925 | Taung Child
Anthropologist Raymond
Dart cables Science News-Letter from South Africa with
a description of a recently
discovered 2.5-million-year-
old hominid skull called the
Taung Child (2/21/25, p. 1 ).
1923 | Heart surgery
First successful heart valve
surgery is performed, on a
12-year-old girl in Boston
(9/8/23, p. 1).
1923 | Pavlov’s mice
Russian physiologist Ivan
Pawlow (Pavlov) reports
that mice learn to associate
an electric bell with din-
ner after 300 lessons of the
bell accompanying food
( 11/24/23, p. 6 ).
1923 | Vitamin E
A new “vitamin X” that is key
1924 | Jiving bees
Karl von Frisch finds that
bees report to hive mates
where nectar has been
found with a jazzy dance
( 2/23/24, p. 2). N
1925 | Scopes trial
The largest U.S. science
society pledges its support
of Tennessee teacher John T.
Scopes (above right), who has
been arrested for teaching
evolution ( 6/6/25, p. 1) .
1926 | Making elements
William D. Harkins achieves
transmutation of elements,
converting nitrogen to fluorine and then to hydrogen
and oxygen by bombarding
the starting element with a
helium nucleus ( 5/15/26,
p. 4). A German physicist
later hits gold with hydrogen to make mercury
(5/22/26, p. 2).
1927 | AT&T TV
AT&T’s new television process is described (4/16/27,
p. 237); it uses photoelectric
cells.
Rise of quantum theory
Science News-Letter was born only a few years before the greatest scientific revolution
since newton, a revolution that transformed niels Bohr’s “old quantum theory” of
the atom into the modern understanding of quantum mechanics. Beginning in 1925,
Werner heisenberg (above), erwin Schrödinger, max Born, paul Dirac and others created
the math of physics’s future, culminating in heisenberg’s famous uncertainty principle. “it
is as yet an impossible task to describe this theory in simple language,” Bertrand russell
wrote of quantum mechanics in a book excerpt appearing in Science News-Letter in 1928
(3/17/28, p. 168). in 1929, Science News-Letter wrote of “heisenberg’s indetermination
principle,” suggesting that it was “destined to revolutionize the ideas of the universe held
by scientists and laymen to an even greater extent than einstein’s relativity.” the article
also suggested that “in the new idea that uncertainty rules the universe, dreamers and
mystics will see the abode of their fancies” (4/27/29, p. 257). — Tom Siegfried
1927 | Gene theory
Thomas Hunt Morgan
is elected president of the
National Academy of
Sciences and cited for devel-
oping a gene theory that
established individual units
of heredity (5/7/27, p. 293). N
1928 | Atomic theory
Erwin Schrödinger and
Werner Heisenberg describe
a new atomic theory in different but complementary
terms, laying out the field
of quantum mechanics
(3/17/28, p. 168; 10/28/33,
p. 275). N
1929 | Uncertainty
Werner Heisenberg’s
“principle of indeterminacy
or uncertainty” is called
both “revolutionary” and a
“disturbing idea” by Science
News-Letter (4/27/29,
p. 257). N
