1991 in science
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The year 1991 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.
Contents |
[edit] Astronomy and space exploration
- May 18 – Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space, flying with the Soyuz TM-12 mission.[1] As of 2011 she is the only British astronaut.
- October 29 – The Galileo probe becomes the first spacecraft to visit an asteroid (951 Gaspra).
- Asteroid 6859 Datemasamune is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
- 11514 Tsunenaga is discovered.
- There are four lunar eclipses: three penumbral on January 30, July 26, and June 27, and one minor partial lunar eclipse on December 21.
- There are two solar eclipses, one annular eclipse on January 15, and a very long total eclipse on July 11, lasting 6 minutes and 53 seconds.
[edit] Atomic physics
[edit] Chemistry
- Carbon nanotubes discovered in the insoluble material of arc-burned graphite rods by Sumio Iijima of NEC.[2][3]
[edit] Computer science
- February 26 – Tim Berners-Lee introduces the web browser.
- June 5 – Phil Zimmermann posts the first Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) data encryption program.[4]
- August 6 – The first website goes online at CERN.[5][6][7][8]
[edit] Geophysics
- Alan Hildebrand and others provide support for the Alvarez hypothesis for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event by proposing the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico as the impact site for a large asteroid 65 million years ago.[9][10][11]
[edit] Mathematics
- Qiudong Wang produces a global solution to the n-body problem.[12]
[edit] Publications
- The first open-access scientific online archive, arXiv, is begun as a preprint service for physicists, initiated by Paul Ginsparg.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Births
[edit] Deaths
- January 30 – John Bardeen (b. 1908), physicist, co-inventor of the transistor and twice winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- March 1 – Edwin H. Land (b. 1909), inventor and founder of Polaroid.
- June 5 – Min Chueh Chang (b. 1908), embryologist.
[edit] References
- ^ "1991: Sharman becomes first Briton in space". BBC News. 1991-05-18. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2380000/2380649.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
- ^ Iijima, Sumio (7 November 1991). "Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon". Nature 354 (6348): 56–58. Bibcode 1991Natur.354...56I. doi:10.1038/354056a0. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v354/n6348/abs/354056a0.html. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
- ^ Monthioux, Marc; Kuznetsov, Vladimir L. (2006). "Who should be given the credit for the discovery of carbon nanotubes?" (PDF). Carbon 44 (9): 1621. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2006.03.019. http://www.cemes.fr/fichpdf/GuestEditorial.pdf. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
- ^ Zimmermann, Philip (2001-06-05). "PGP Marks 10th Anniversary". http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/news/PGP_10thAnniversary.html. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
- ^ "Welcome to info.cern.ch, the website of the world's first-ever web server". CERN. http://info.cern.ch/. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
- ^ "World Wide Web—Archive of world's first website". World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
- ^ "World Wide Web—First mentioned on USENET". Google. 6 August 1991. http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.hypertext/msg/06dad279804cb3ba?dmode=source&hl=en. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
- ^ "The original post to alt.hypertalk describing the WorldWideWeb Project". Google Groups. Google. 9 August 1991. http://groups.google.com/group/comp.archives/browse_thread/thread/9fb079523583d42/37bb6783d03a3b0d?lnk=st&q=&rnum=2&hl=en#37bb6783d03a3b0d. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
- ^ Pope, Kevin O. et al. (9 May 1991). "Mexican site for K/T impact crater?". Nature 351 (6322): 105. Bibcode 1991Natur.351..105P. doi:10.1038/351105a0. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v351/n6322/pdf/351105a0.pdf.
- ^ Hildebrand, Alan R.; Penfield, Glen T.; Kring, David A.; Pilkington, Mark; Zanoguera, Antonio Camargo; Jacobsen, Stein B.; Boynton, William V. (September 1991). "Chicxulub Crater: a possible Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary impact crater on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico". Geology 19 (9): 867–871. Bibcode 1991Geo....19..867H. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1991)019<0867:CCAPCT>2.3.CO;2. http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/19/9/867.full.pdf+html.
- ^ Schulte, Peter et al. (2010). "The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous- Paleogene Boundary". Science 327 (5970): 1214–1218. Bibcode 2010Sci...327.1214S. doi:10.1126/science.1177265. PMID 20203042. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5970/1214.full.pdf.
- ^ Wang, Qiudong (1991). "The global solution of the n-body problem". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy 50 (1): 73–88. Bibcode 1991CeMDA..50...73W. doi:10.1007/BF00048987. ISSN 0923-2958.
