1932 in science

Astronomy and space sciences

• August 10 – A 5.1 kg chondrite-type meteorite breaks into fragments and strikes earth near the town of Archie, Missouri.
• Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System.

Biology

• English geneticist C. D. Darlington publishes Recent Advances in Cytology, describing the mechanics of chromosomal crossover and its role in evolutionary science.
• English geneticist J. B. S. Haldane publishes The Causes of Evolution, unifying the findings of Mendelian genetics with those of evolutionary science.
• American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon publishes The Wisdom of the Body, developing and popularising the concept of homeostasis.
• A flock of Soay sheep is translocated from Soay to Hirta by conservationist John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute.
• The heath hen becomes extinct in North America.

Earth sciences

• Braggite is first described, the first mineral discovered with the assistance of X rays.

Mathematics

• Menger-Nöbeling theorem.
• John von Neumann makes foundational contributions to ergodic theory in a series of papers.
• Rózsa Péter presents the results of her paper on recursive function theory, "Rekursive Funktionen," to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich, Switzerland.
• December – Marian Rejewski of the Polish Biuro Szyfrów applies pure mathematics – permutation group theory – to breaking the German armed forces' Enigma machine ciphers.

Medicine

• January 5 – The pathology of Cushing's syndrome is first described by Harvey Cushing.
• American gastroenterologist Burrill Bernard Crohn and colleagues describe a series of patients with "regional ileitis", inflammation of the terminal ileum, the area most commonly affected by the condition which will become known as Crohn's disease.
• Grace Medes discovers tyrosinosis, the metabolic disorder later known as Type I tyrosinemia.
• Swedish neurosurgeon Herbert Olivecrona performs the first surgical excision of an intracranial arteriovenous malformation.
• Rudolph Schindler introduces the first semi-flexible gastroscope, in Germany.
• Commencement of the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor African-American sharecroppers in Alabama without their informed consent.
• First published use of the term Medical genetics, in an article by Madge Thurlow Macklin.
• Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus

Pharmacology

• Albert Szent-Györgyi and Charles Glen King identify ascorbic acid as an anti-scorbutic.
• December 25 – IG Farben file a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide drug, Sulfonamidochrysoidine, following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic at the conglomerate's Bayer laboratories.

Physics

• April 14 – John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, utilising a Cockcroft–Walton generator at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, focus a proton beam on lithium and split its nucleus.
• May – Radio Luxembourg begins high-powered longwave test transmissions aimed directly at the British Isles which prove, inadvertently, to be the first radio modification of the ionosphere.
• May 10 – James Chadwick, working at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge, reports the existence of the neutron. Werner Heisenberg explains its symmetries by introducing the concept of isospin.
• August 2 – The positron is observed by Carl Anderson.
• November 1 – The Kennedy–Thorndike experiment is published, showing that measured time as well as length is affected by motion, in accordance with the theory of special relativity.
• John von Neumann rigorously establishes a mathematical framework for quantum mechanics in Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik.
• Zero-length springs are invented, revolutionizing seismometers and gravimeters.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
• * Physics – Werner Karl Heisenberg
• * Chemistry – Irving Langmuir
• * Medicine – Sir Charles Sherrington, Edgar Adrian

Births

• January 16 – Dian Fossey, American primatologist.
• February 7 – Alfred Worden, American astronaut.
• February 10 – Robert Taylor, American computer scientist.
• March 10 – Udupi Ramachandra Rao, Indian space scientist.
• March 14 – Joseph Bryan Nelson, British ornithologist.
• March 15 – Alan Bean, American astronaut.
• March 21 – Walter Gilbert, American chemist and Nobel laureate
• March 24 – Lodewijk van den Berg, Dutch-born American chemical engineer and astronaut
• April 26 – Michael Smith, English-born biochemist, recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• May 22 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist.
• July 10 – Ioan Pușcaș, Romanian gastroenterologist.
• July 31 – John Searle, American philosopher of the mind and language.
• August 4 – Frances E. Allen, American computer scientist, Turing Award winner.
• August 15 – Robert L. Forward, American science fiction author and physicist.
• August 18 – Luc Montagnier, French virologist and joint recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus.
• September 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Russian cosmonaut.
• September 29 – Rainer Weiss, German-born American physicist, joint recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for detection of gravitational waves.
• October 1 – Biswa Ranjan Nag, Indian physicist.
• October 3 – Terence English, South African-born cardiac surgeon.
• October 13 – John G. Thompson, American mathematician.
• November 6 – François Englert, Belgian theoretical physicist, joint recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of the Higgs mechanism.
• December 15 – John Meurig Thomas, Welsh physical chemist.

Deaths

• February 29 – George Claridge Druce, English botanist.
• March 14 – George Eastman, American photography pioneer.
• April 3 – Wilhelm Ostwald, Baltic German chemist.
• April 20 – Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician.
• May 29 – Cuthbert Christy, English medical investigator, zoologist and explorer.
• June 21 – Major Taylor, African American racing cyclist.
• July 9 – King Camp Gillette, American inventor.
• July 14 – Fran Jesenko, Slovene botanist and plant geneticist.
• July 22 – Reginald Fessenden, Canadian American radio broadcasting pioneer.
• August 9 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician.
• September 16 – Sir Ronald Ross, British physiologist.
• November 12 – Sir Dugald Clerk, Scottish-born mechanical engineer.