1936 | Science
Science
English mathematician Alan M. (Mathison) Turing, 24, proves that there cannot be any universal method of determination and that mathematics will therefore always contain undecidable (as opposed to unknown) propositions; his paper "On Compatible Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem [Decision Problem]" has been inspired by the 1931 incompleteness theorem of Kurt Gödel; taking issue with the view of David Hilbert and his school at Göttingen, Turing says there are classes of mathematical problems that cannot be solved by any fixed and definite process, he clarifies the notion of a "definite process," calling it "something that could be done by an automatic machine," and he illustrates his point by positing a device that would possess a finite program, a large data-storage capacity, and a step-by-step mathematical operation—the fundamental properties of what will become a modern computer (see Bush, 1930; politics, 1938; Gödel, 1940).
Physiologist J. S. Haldane dies at Oxford the night of March 15 at age 75, having invented (among other things) the hemoglobinometer for measuring gas in the blood; chemist Henry-Louis Le Chatelier dies at Miribel-les-Echelles September 17 at age 85.