2008 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| List of years in science (Table) |
|---|
| Related time period or subjects |
| Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more |
The year 2008 in science and technology involved some significant events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.
Contents |
[edit] Events and discoveries
- January 15 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes the first of its three flybys of Mercury at an altitude of 200 kilometres (120 mi), decreasing its velocity for its 2011 orbital insertion.
- February 7 – An annular solar eclipse takes place.
- March 12 – The Cassini spacecraft orbits within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of Enceladus, its closest encounter yet with the sixth-largest moon of Saturn.
- April 2 – A hybrid human-cow embryo survives a third straight day after being fertilized at Newcastle University, England. A director for embryonic stem cell laboratories at the Australian Stem Cell Centre says that the "99-per-cent human" embryo could improve research within the field of human diseases. However, the Catholic Church states that the creation is "monstrous", and says that the later destruction of it is unethical.[1]
- June – Spanish surgeon Paolo Macchiarini carries out the world's first tissue-engineered whole organ transplant, replacing a Colombian woman's windpipe made with the patient's own stem cells.[2]
- June 8 – NASA's Pluto probe New Horizons crosses the orbit of Saturn, after a journey of over two years.
- August 1 – A total solar eclipse takes place in northern Canada, Siberia, Mongolia and northern China.
- September 10 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN begins proton beam tests.
- September 19 – A magnet in the LHC fails, damaging several other magnets and requiring substantial repairs.
- October 6 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes the second of its three flybys of Mercury.
- October 7 – 2008 TC3 becomes the first Earth-impacting meteoroid spotted and tracked prior to impact.
- November 10 – The Martin Jetpack flies for 46 seconds, 13 seconds longer than any previous jetpack.[3]
- November 20 – Conficker computer worm first detected.[4]
[edit] Deaths
- March 19 – Arthur C. Clarke (b. 1917), British science fiction author and inventor.
- April 8 – Graham Higman (b. 1917), British mathematician.
- April 13 – John Wheeler (b. 1911), American theoretical physicist, coined the terms black hole and wormhole.
- April 16 – Edward Norton Lorenz (b. 1917), American mathematician and meteorologist, coined the term butterfly effect.
- April 29 – Albert Hofmann (b. 1906), Swiss chemist, synthesizer of LSD.
- May 15 – Willis Lamb (b. 1913), American physicist, winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics.
- July 22 – Victor A. McKusick (b. 1921), American geneticist, known as the "Father of Genetic Medicine".
- August 5 – Neil Bartlett (b. 1932), British chemist who prepared the first compound of a noble gas.
- November 14 – Adrian Kantrowitz (b. 1918), American cardiac surgeon.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ (News.com.au) Archived May 24, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Roberts, Michelle (19 November 2008). "Windpipe transplant breakthrough". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7735696.stm. Retrieved 2011-07-07.
- ^ "The DIY Flier". Popsci. http://www.popsci.com/bown/2008/innovator/diy-flier. Retrieved 2011-07-07.
- ^ Bowden, Mark (June 2010). "The Enemy Within". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2012-02-21. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/the-enemy-within/8098/. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
