1942

First controlled nuclear chain reaction achieved

Enrico Fermi

At 3:25 p.m. on 2 December, a graphite-and-uranium pile assembled under the west stands of Stagg Field became briefly, obediently, self-sustaining. Enrico Fermi watched the instruments, nodded, and ordered the control rods back in. The message sent to Washington was pleasingly oblique: "The Italian navigator has just landed in the new world."

First detection of solar radio waves

On 27 February, British Army officer James Stanley Hey noticed that his radar sets were being jammed by an unusually persistent and directional source. The source, it turned out, was the Sun. A large sunspot group was to blame, and an entirely new field — radio astronomy — arrived as a side effect of trying to spot enemy aircraft.

Penicillin mass production begins in the United States

Large-scale fermentation techniques developed through 1942 began transforming penicillin from a thing Florey's team had been growing in bedpans into something a factory could produce. The War Production Board's involvement made it a matter of national priority, not merely scientific curiosity.

Cyanoacrylate adhesive invented

Harry Coover

Harry Coover of Eastman Kodak synthesized cyanoacrylate while searching for clear plastics suitable for gun sights. The material stuck to everything it touched, which made it useless for the intended purpose and eventually indispensable for nearly every other one.