1932 in science

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The year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space sciences

Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud (the Öpik–Oort cloud) at the outermost edge of the Solar System.^[1]

English geneticist C. D. Darlington publishes Recent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics of chromosomal crossover^[2] and its role in evolutionary science.
English geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution, unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon publishes The Wisdom of the Body, developing and popularising the concept of homeostasis.

Braggite is first described, the first mineral discovered with the assistance of X rays.^[3]^[4]

Menger-Nöbeling theorem.
John von Neumann makes foundational contributions to ergodic theory in a series of papers.^[5]^[6]^[7]
December – Marian Rejewski of the Polish Biuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics – permutation group theory – to breaking the German armed forces' Enigma machine ciphers.^[8]^[9]

January 5 – The pathology of Cushing's syndrome is first described by Harvey Cushing.^[10]^[11]
Jewish-American gastroenterologist Burrill Bernard Crohn and colleagues describe a series of patients with "regional ileitis", inflammation of the terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known as Crohn's disease.^[12]
Grace Medes discovers tyrosinosis, the metabolic disorder later known as Type I tyrosinemia.
Rudolph Schindler introduces the first semi-flexible gastroscope, in Germany.^[13]
Commencement of the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor African-American sharecroppers in Alabama without their informed consent.^[14]
First published use of the term Medical genetics, in an article by Madge Macklin.^[15]
Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus

Albert Szent-Györgyi and Charles Glen King identify hexuronic acid as an anti-scorbutic.
December 25 – IG Farben file a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide drug, Sulfonamidochrysoidine (KI-730; which will be marketed as Prontosil), following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic.^[16]

August 2 – The positron is observed by Carl Anderson.^[17]
James Chadwick discovers the neutron.^[18]^[19] Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept of isospin.^[20]
The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment shows that measured time as well as length are affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of special relativity.^[21]
John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics in Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik.

January 16 – Dian Fossey (murdered 1985), American primatologist.
March 14 – Joseph Bryan Nelson (died 2015), British ornithologist.
April 26 – Michael Smith (died 2000), English-born biochemist, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
May 22 – Robert Spitzer (died 2015), American psychiatrist.
August 15 – Robert L. Forward (died 2002), American science fiction author and physicist.
August 18 – Luc Montagnier, French virologist and joint recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
September 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov (died 2002), Russian cosmonaut.
October 13 – John G. Thompson, American mathematician.
November 6 – François Englert, Belgian theoretical physicist, joint recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the Higgs mechanism.

February 29 – George Claridge Druce (born 1850), English botanist.
March 14 – George Eastman (born 1854), American photography pioneer (suicide).
April 3 – Wilhelm Ostwald (born 1853), Baltic German chemist.
April 20 – Giuseppe Peano (born 1858), Italian mathematician.
May 29 – Cuthbert Christy (born 1863), English medical investigator, zoologist and explorer.
June 21 – Marshall "Major" Taylor (born 1878), African American racing cyclist.
July 9 – King Camp Gillette (born 1855), American inventor.
July 14 – Fran Jesenko (born 1875), Slovene botanist and plant geneticist.
July 22 – Reginald Fessenden (born 1866), Canadian American radio broadcasting pioneer.
August 9 – John Charles Fields (born 1863), Canadian mathematician.
September 16 – Sir Ronald Ross (born 1857), British physiologist.
November 12 – Sir Dugald Clerk (born 1854), Scottish-born mechanical engineer.