See also: 1902 in science, other events of 1903, 1904 in science and the list of years in science.
Aeronautics First documented, successful, controlled, powered flight of an aircraft with a petrol engine by Orville Wright Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins a series of papers discussing the use of rocketry to reach outer space, space suits, and colonization of the solar system Biology Thomas Hunt Morgan discovers that chromosomes contain genes. The type specimen of the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is described by Carl Chun. Chemistry Peter Cooper Hewitt demonstrates the mercury-vapour lamp Mathematics Fast Fourier Transform algorithm presented by Carle David Tolme Runge Edmund Georg Hermann Landau gives considerably simpler proof of the prime number theorem Physics George Darwin and John Joly claim that radioactivity is partially responsible for the Earth's heat Awards Nobel Prizes Physics - Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie Chemistry - Svante August Arrhenius Medicine - Niels Ryberg Finsen Births January 22 - Fritz Houtermans, physicist January 27 - John Carew Eccles, psychologist February 2 - Bartel Leendert van der Waerden, mathematician February 22 - Frank P. Ramsey, mathematician April 6 - Doc Edgerton, professor, electrical engineer April 25 - Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov, mathematician August 7 - Louis Leakey, archaeologist November 7 - Konrad Lorenz, zoologist November 27 - Lars Onsager, chemist December 28 - John von Neumann, mathematician Deaths February 1 - George Gabriel Stokes, mathematician and physicist (* 1819 March 28 - Emile Baudot, telegraph engineer (* 1845) April 28 - Willard Gibbs, physical chemist (* 1839)
