Science and culture, second half of the 20th century

In the second half of the 20th century the scientific and technological revolution changed industry and daily life through automation, electronics and new materials. The transistor was invented in 1947, the integrated circuit was created in 1958–1959 (Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce) and computers became smaller and widespread; ARPANET appeared in 1969, e-mail in 1971–1972 and later the Internet took shape. In biology Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA in 1953, and a polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s. Cold War rivalry intensified the space race: the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1) on 4 October 1957, Yuri Gagarin’s first flight on 12 April 1961, Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space) in 1963, and on 20 July 1969 the Apollo 11 crew (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin) became the first humans to land on the Moon. The laser was built in 1960 (Theodore Maiman), and the work of N. Basov, A. Prokhorov and C. Townes received a Nobel Prize in 1964. In culture, abstract art, pop art and later postmodernism, popular music and film, literature on war and peace, and Latin American literature (for example G. G. Márquez) drew world attention; popular culture spread rapidly through television and radio.