1926 in science

• March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts. This is considered by some to be the start of the space age, although his rocket did not reach outer space. ==Biology==

• August 7 – American herpetologist G.K. Noble publishes a demonstration that Paul Kammerer's claims to have shown Lamarckian inheritance in the midwife toad suffer from falsification of evidence. • American microbiologist Selman Waksman publishes Enzymes. • The Quarterly Review of Biology is established by Raymond Pearl in the United States. ==Chemistry==

• Waldo Semon and the B.F. Goodrich Company develop a method of plasticizing polyvinyl chloride, giving it commercial potential. • Graham Edgar originates the octane rating system for automotive fuel. • Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust) is first synthesized. ==Earth sciences==

• Vladimir Vernadsky popularises the concept of the biosphere in a book (in Russian) of this title. ==Exploration==

• May 12 – Roald Amundsen, Umberto Nobile and crew fly over the North Pole in the airship Norge. ==Mathematics==

• Otakar Borůvka publishes Borůvka's algorithm, introducing the greedy algorithm. ==Medicine==

• First vaccine for pertussis. • American biogerontologist Raymond Pearl publishes his book Alcohol and Longevity demonstrating that drinking alcohol in moderation is associated with greater longevity than either abstaining or drinking heavily. • Finnish physician Erik Adolf von Willebrand first describes Hereditär pseudohemofili ("Hereditary pseudohemophilia"), later known as Von Willebrand disease. • German-Jewish dermatologist Walter Freudenthal gives the earliest clear histopathological description of keratoma senile (actinic keratosis), distinguishing it from verruca senilis (seborrheic keratosis), in Breslau. • The description 'glioblastoma multiforme' is introduced by Percival Bailey and Harvey Cushing. ==Meteorology==

• Wasaburo Oishi first describes the jet stream. ==Paleontology==

• Gerhard Heilmann publishes The Origin of Birds (in English) on bird evolution. ==Physics==

• Wolfgang Pauli uses Werner Heisenberg's matrix theory of quantum mechanics to derive the observed spectrum of the hydrogen atom. ==Technology==

• January 26 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates his pioneering greyscale mechanical television system (which he calls a "televisor") at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times. • February – Hidetsugu Yagi and Shintaro Uda publish the first description of the Yagi–Uda antenna. • June 28 – A patent for an electric percussion fuse for explosive projectiles, invented by Herbert Rühlemann, is filed in Germany. • July • Alan A. Griffith publishes An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design, proposing an airfoil shape for turbine blades. • Carl Zeiss, Jena, open a planetarium housed in a geodesic dome designed by Walther Bauersfeld. • November 23 – The aerosol spray can is patented by Erik Rotheim, a Norwegian chemical engineer. • The Einstein refrigerator is invented by Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard. • Ulster-born engineer Harry Ferguson is granted a British patent for his 'Duplex' hitch linking tractor and plough. • German engineer Andreas Stihl patents and develops an electric chainsaw. ==Awards==

• Nobel Prizes • Physics – Jean Baptiste Perrin • Chemistry – Theodor Svedberg • Medicine – Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger • Copley Medal: Frederick Hopkins • Wollaston Medal for Geology: Henry Fairfield Osborn ==Births==

• January 11 – Lev Dyomin (died 1998), Soviet Russian cosmonaut. • January 29 – Abdus Salam (died 1996), Punjabi theoretical physicist. • February – David Medved (died 2009), American physicist. • March 7 – Margaret Weston (died 2021), English electrical engineer and Director of the Science Museum, London. • April 3 – Gus Grissom (died 1967), American astronaut. • May 1 – Eva Siracká (died 2023), Slovak physician • May 8 – David Attenborough, English broadcaster and naturalist. • May 17 – Franz Sondheimer (died 1981), German-born British chemist • June 19 – Erna Schneider Hoover, American computer technologist. • June 23 – Lawson Soulsby (died 2017), English parasitologist. • July 27 – W. David Kingery (died 2000), American materials scientist specializing in ceramic materials. • July 31 • Bernard Nathanson (died 2011), American medical doctor and activist. • Hilary Putnam (died 2016), American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist. • August 11 – Sir Aaron Klug (died 2018), Lithuanian-born British biophysicist and chemist. • August 19 – George Daniels (died 2011), English horologist. • September 4 – George William Gray (died 2013), Scottish chemist, discoverer of stable liquid crystal materials leading to the development of liquid-crystal displays. • September 7 – Donald Pinkel (died 2022), American pediatric hematologist and oncologist. • September 15 – Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician. • October 2 – Michio Suzuki (died 1998), Japanese mathematician. • October 12 – Ruth L. Kirschstein (died 2009), American pathologist and science administrator at the National Institutes of Health. • October 31 – Narinder Singh Kapany (died 2020), Punjabi-born physicist. • November 29 – Dilhan Eryurt (died 2012), Turkish astrophysicist. • December 10 – Neena Schwartz (died 2018), American endocrinologist. • Rosemary Fowler, English physicist. ==Deaths==

• March 5 – Clément Ader (born 1841), French engineer and inventor, airplane pioneer. • April 11 – Luther Burbank (born 1849), American plant breeder. • May 8 – Stephen Paget (born 1855), English surgeon. • July 21 – Washington Roebling (born 1837), American civil engineer. • September 23 – Paul Kammerer (born 1880), Austrian Lamarckian biologist (suicide). • October 7 – Emil Kraepelin (born 1856), German psychiatrist. • October 10 – Clara H. Hasse (born 1880), American botanist. • October 19 – Victor Babeș (born 1854), Romanian physician and bacteriologist. • November 26 – John Browning (born 1855), American firearms designer. ==References==