The year 1958 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Events
During International Geophysical Year
Earth's magnetosphere is discovered. The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition discovers the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range in Antarctica; also becoming the first to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility (December 14). The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes (March 2) its three-year mission to make the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. The first (and third ever) team to reach the Pole overland (January 3) is Edmund Hillary's, using adapted Ferguson TE20 tractors, the first powered vehicles to complete a trip here. April 17–October 19 – Expo 58 in Brussels. The centrepiece is the Atomium; and a model of tobacco mosaic virus structure by Rosalind Franklin's research team is exhibited. July 9 – 1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami: A 7.8 strike-slip earthquake in Southeast Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reaches on the rim of Lituya Bay.
Astronomy and space exploration
January 4 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit and burns up (launched on October 4, 1957). January 31 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit. February 5 – A backup for Vanguard TV3 fails to reach orbit. February 11 – The strongest known solar maximum is recorded. March 5 – Explorer 2 fails to reach orbit. March 17 – Vanguard 1 becomes the first of its program to enter space, after three failed attempts. March 26 – Explorer 3 is launched into orbit. April 14 – Sputnik 2 re-enters Earth's atmosphere. July 29 – The United States Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). September 14 – Two rockets designed by Ernst Mohr (the first post-war German rockets) reach the upper atmosphere. December 18 – The United States launches SCORE, the world's first communications satellite.
Biology
Francis Crick states the "central dogma of molecular biology". John Gurdon clones a frog using somatic-cell nuclear transfer from a Xenopus tadpole. Anne McLaren, with John D. Biggers, reports the first mammals, a litter of mice, grown from embryos developed in vitro and transferred to a surrogate mother. Danish virologist Preben von Magnus gives the first confirmation of monkeypox virus and description of monkeypox (in laboratory crab-eating macaques).
Chemistry
Denatonium, the bitterest chemical compound known (used as an aversive agent), is discovered during research on local anesthetics by Macfarlan Smith of Edinburgh, Scotland, and registered under the trademark Bitrex. Instant noodles introduced by Momofuku Ando.
Computer science
May 27–June 2 – A joint meeting of the ACM and GAMM at ETH Zurich agrees to produce the International Algebraic Language, which will become the programming language ALGOL. Friedrich L. Bauer and other members of the ZMMD-Group build a working ALGOL 58 compiler. John McCarthy specifies the Lisp programming language.
History of science
Society for the History of Technology established.
Mathematics
School Mathematics Study Group, directed by Edward G. Begle, established to develop a new school mathematics curriculum for the United States; it is influential in the promotion of New Math.
Medicine
May 22 – Jérôme Lejeune, working with Marthe Gautier in Raymond Turpin's French laboratory, discovers that the genetic cause of Down syndrome is an extra copy of chromosome 21, the first time that a defect in intellectual development is shown to be linked to chromosomal abnormalities. June 7 – Ian Donald publishes an article in The Lancet which describes the diagnostic use of ultrasound in obstetrics. Engineer Earl Bakken (U.S.) produces the first wearable external artificial pacemaker, for a patient of Dr. C. Walton Lillehei. The first clinical implantation into a human of a fully implantable artificial pacemaker takes place at the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden, using a pacemaker designed by Rune Elmqvist and surgeon Åke Senning. The patient, Arne Larsson (1915–2001), survives until age 86, having been fitted with 22 pacemakers throughout his life. B. Eiseman and colleagues from Colorado first describe fecal microbiota transplantation. Denis Parsons Burkitt first describes Burkitt's lymphoma.
Paleontology
February 7 – Discovery of "Deep Skull" in Niah Caves in Sarawak by Barbara and Tom Harrisson, at around 40,000 years BP the oldest known evidence of Homo sapiens in southeast Asia.
Psychology
Fritz Heider proposes the naïve scientist model of social cognition.