1963 in science - Definition

The year 1963 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• May 15 - Mercury program: NASA launches the last mission of the program, Mercury 9 (on June 12 NASA Administrator James E. Webb told Congress the program was complete).

• Arecibo Observatory officially begins operation.

Biology

• Geneticist J. B. S. Haldane coins the word "clone".

Physics

• D. H. Frisch and J. H. Smith prove radioactive decay of mesons is slowed by their motion. (See Einstein's special relativity and general relativity).

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Eugene Paul Wigner, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, J. Hans D. Jensen
  • Chemistry - Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta
  • Medicine - Sir John Carew Eccles, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Andrew Fielding Huxley

Births

Deaths

• April 6 - Otto Struve (b. 1897), astronomer.