1986 in science

List of years in science (table)
… 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Philosophy Science +...

The year 1986 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• January 24 – NASA Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus.
• January 28 – NASA Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Their bodies are located by United States Navy divers on March 9.
• February 19 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
• March 8 – Japanese spacecraft Suisei flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.

Biology

• May – First reported methods for constructing a monoclonal antibody containing parts from mouse and human antibodies, a required first step toward the development of humanized antibodies used later as medical therapeutics (such as Infliximab).

Computer science

• January 19 – The first MS-DOS-based personal computer virus, Brain, starts to spread.
• April 3 – IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
• June 23 – Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.
• Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is visualized by Mark Crispin.
• 3D printing is developed by Charles Hull.

Mathematics

• Summer – Kenneth Alan Ribet demonstrates proof of the ε-conjecture, subsequently known as Ribet's theorem confirming Gerhard Frey's suggestion that the Taniyama–Shimura conjecture implies Fermat's Last Theorem.
• Lee Sallows introduces the alphamagic square.

Medicine

• Food and Drug Administration approval of the first monoclonal antibody drug, Muronomab-CD3 (also known as Orthoclone OKT3), for treatment of transplant rejection.

Awards

• Crafoord Prize in Geosciences: Gerald Wasserburg and Claude Jean Allègre
• Fields Prize in Mathematics: Simon Donaldson, Gerd Faltings and Michael Freedman
• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Ernst Ruska, Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer
  • Chemistry – Dudley R. Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee, John C. Polanyi
  • Medicine – Stanley Cohen, Rita Levi-Montalcini
• Turing Award – John Hopcroft, Robert Tarjan
• Wollaston Medal for Geology – Claude Jean Allègre

Deaths

Crew of NASA Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-L

• January 7 – Rex Wailes (b. 1901), English engineer and historian of technology.
• January 28
  • Crew of United States Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-L:
    • Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)
    • Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948)
    • Ronald McNair (b. 1950)
    • Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946)
    • Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
    • Dick Scobee (b. 1939)
    • Michael J. Smith (b. 1945)
  • Dorothée Pullinger (b. 1894), French-born British production engineer.
• April 22 – Dame Honor Fell (b. 1900), English biologist.
• July 21 – Zhang Yuzhe (b. 1902), Chinese astronomer.
• October 22 – Albert Szent-Györgyi (b. 1893), Hungarian physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• October 23 – Edward Adelbert Doisy (b. 1893), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• November 25 – Sir Ivan Magill (b. 1888), British anesthesiologist.