1956 in science

The year 1956 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Biology

July 14 – Second part of the publication of Dorothy Hodgkin's description of the structure of Vitamin B₁₂.

May – Gilbert Plass publishes his seminal article "The Carbon Dioxide Theory of Climate Change".

April – Humphry Osmond first proposes use of the word psychedelic to describe the effect of certain drugs, at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences.
May 1 – Minamata disease epidemic is identified in Japan by Hajime Hosokawa.
June 1 – Elsie Stephenson becomes founding Director of the Nurse Teaching Unit, University of Edinburgh, the first nurse teaching unit within a British university.
November – The classic definition of obesity hypoventilation syndrome is published.
Asian flu pandemic originates in China.
Use of penicillamine in treatment of Wilson's disease first described.
American voice actor Paul Winchell applies to patent an implantable artificial heart, the first person to do so.

April 14 – 2-inch quadruplex videotape, the first practical and commercially successful analog recording videotape format, is released for the broadcast television industry by Ampex of Redwood City, California.
April 17 – Eugene Houdry is granted a patent for the automobile catalytic converter.
June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", first snooze alarm clock.
August 27 – Calder Hall nuclear power station in England is first connected to the National Grid. This Magnox plant is the world's first nuclear power plant to deliver electricity in commercial quantities. Official opening is on October 17.
November 11 – First flight of Convair B-58, the first supersonic jet bomber capable of Mach 2 flight, designed by Robert H. Widmer.
First Chamberlin electro-mechanical keyboard instrument, developed and patented by Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin, is introduced.

February 28 – Penny Sackett, American-born Australian astronomer and Chief Scientist.
April 16 – David M. Brown, American astronaut.
April 19 – Anne Glover, Scottish biologist.
May 3 – Carlo Rovelli, Italian-born theoretical physicist.
May 20 – Marlene Zuk, American biologist.
July 1 – Gregg L. Semenza, American cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
July 25 – Frances Arnold, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
September 9 – Avi Wigderson, Israeli-born mathematician.
October 17 – Mae Jemison, African American engineer and astronaut.
October 19 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician, discoverer of SARS.
December 23 – Simon Wessely, English psychiatrist.
David Nott, Welsh-born surgeon.
Zhuo-Hua Pan, Chinese-born neuroscientist