Editing 1950s (section)

==Science and technology==

===Technology===
[[File:MOSFET Structure.png|thumb|The [[MOSFET]] (MOS transistor) was invented by [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] at [[Bell Labs]] in [[November 1959]]. It is central to the [[Digital Revolution]], and the most widely manufactured device in history.]]
[[File:Sputnik asm.jpg|thumb|right|In 1957, the Soviet Union launches to space [[Sputnik 1]], the first artificial satellite]]

The recently invented [[History of the transistor|bipolar transistor]], though initially quite feeble, had clear potential and was rapidly improved and developed at the beginning of the 1950s by companies such as [[General Electric|GE]], [[RCA]], and [[Philco]]. The first commercial transistor production started at the Western Electric plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October, 1951 with the point contact germanium transistor. It was not until around 1954 that transistor products began to achieve real commercial success with small portable [[transistor radio|radios]].

A breakthrough in [[semiconductor]] technology came with the invention of the [[MOSFET]] (metal–oxide–semiconductor [[field-effect transistor]]), also known as the MOS transistor, by [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] at [[Bell Labs]],<ref name="computerhistory">{{cite journal|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/metal-oxide-semiconductor-mos-transistor-demonstrated/|title=1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated|journal=The Silicon Engine|publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref> in [[November 1959]].<ref name="Bassett22">{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Ross Knox |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=9780801886393 |pages=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA22}}</ref> It revolutionized the [[electronics industry]],<ref name="Chan">{{cite book |last1=Chan |first1=Yi-Jen |title=Studies of InAIAs/InGaAs and GaInP/GaAs heterostructure FET's for high speed applications |date=1992 |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sV4eAQAAMAAJ |page=1 |quote=The Si MOSFET has revolutionized the electronics industry and as a result impacts our daily lives in almost every conceivable way.}}</ref> and became the fundamental building block of the [[Digital Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wong |first1=Kit Po |title=Electrical Engineering - Volume II |date=2009 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems|EOLSS Publications]] |isbn=9781905839780 |page=7}}</ref> The MOSFET went on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.<ref name="computerhistory2018">{{cite web |title=13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/13-sextillion-counting-the-long-winding-road-to-the-most-frequently-manufactured-human-artifact-in-history/ |date=April 2, 2018 |website=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=28 July 2019}}</ref><ref name="Baker">{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=R. Jacob |title=CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation |date=2011 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1118038239 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxYhNrOKuJQC&pg=PA7}}</ref>

[[Television]], which first reached the marketplace in the 1940s, attained maturity during the 1950s and by the end of the decade, most American households owned a TV set. A rush to produce larger screens than the tiny ones found on 1940s models occurred during 1950–52. In 1954, [[RCA]] intro [[Bell Telephone Labs]] produced the first Solar battery. In 1954, a yard of [[contact paper]] could be purchased for only 59 cents. [[Polypropylene]] was invented in 1954. In 1955, [[Jonas Salk]] invented a [[polio vaccine]] which was given to more than seven million American students. In 1956, a solar powered wrist watch was invented.

In 1957, a {{convert|184|lb|adj=on}} satellite named [[Sputnik 1]] was launched by the Soviets. The space race began four months later as the United States launched a smaller satellite.

[[File:Castle Bravo (black and white).jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[Castle Bravo]]: A 15 megaton hydrogen bomb experiment conducted by the United States in 1954. Photographed 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the explosion epicenter.]]
* [[Charles Hard Townes|Charles H. Townes]] builds the [[Maser]] in 1953 at the [[Columbia University]].
* [[The Soviet Union]] launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial [[satellite]] to orbit the Earth on October 4, 1957.
* The United States conducts its first [[hydrogen bomb]] [[Ivy Mike|explosion test]].
* The invention of the modern [[Solar cell]].
* The first [[Passenger jet]]s enter service.
* The U.S. uses Federal prisons, mental institutions and [[pharmacological]] testing volunteers to test drugs like [[LSD]] and [[chlorpromazine]]. Also started experimenting with the [[transorbital lobotomy]].
* President [[Harry S. Truman]] inaugurated transcontinental television service on September 4, 1951, when he made a speech to the nation. AT&T carried his address from San Francisco and it was viewed from the west coast to the east coast at the same time.
*[[Luna 2]] touched down on the surface of [[the Moon]], making it the first spacecraft to land on lunar surface, and the first to make contact with another celestial body on September 13, 1959.

===Science===
[[File:DNA-fragment-3D-vdW.png|thumb|right|100px|Francis Crick and James Watson discover the spiral structure of [[DNA]]]]

* 1950 – an [[Polio vaccine|immunization vaccine]] is produced for [[polio]].
* 1951 – the first human [[cervical cancer]] cells were cultured outside a body, from [[Henrietta Lacks]]. The cells are known as [[HeLa|HeLa cells]] and are the first and most commonly used [[immortalised cell line]].
* 1952 – [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson|James Watson]] discover the double-helix structure of [[DNA]]. [[Rosalind Franklin]] contributed to the discovery of the double-helix structure.
* 1952 – the [[Apgar score]], a scale for newborn viability, is invented by [[Virginia Apgar]].
* 1953 – the first [[transistor computer]] is built at the [[University of Manchester]]
* 1954 – the [[Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant|world's first nuclear power plant]] is opened in [[Obninsk]] near [[Moscow]].
* 1956 – one of the first forms of correction fluid is invented by [[Bette Nesmith Graham]], the founder of the [[Liquid Paper]] company
* 1957 – the [[Immunosuppressive drug]] [[Azathioprine]], used in [[rheumatoid arthritis]], [[granulomatosis with polyangiitis]], [[Crohn's disease]], [[ulcerative colitis]], and in [[Kidney transplant|kidney transplants]] to prevent [[Transplant rejection|rejection]], is first synthesized by [[Gertrude B. Elion]] and [[George H. Hitchings]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/scientific-biographies/george-hitchings-and-gertrude-elion/ |access-date=2024-12-14 |website=Science History Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>
* The first successful [[Medical ultrasonography|ultrasound test]] of the heart activity.
* [[NASA]] is organized.
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