1984 in science

	… 1974; 1975; 1976; 1977; 1978; 1979; 1980; ; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; 1985; 1986; 1987; ; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991; 1992; 1993; 1994 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year 1984 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy and space exploration

February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States converts the 36-foot radio telescope on Kitt Peak (originally built in 1967) to the ARO 12m Radio Telescope.

Biology

First known case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in England.^[1]
The enzyme telomerase is discovered by Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn in the ciliate Tetrahymena.^[2]
Danish physiologist Steen Willadsen first successfully uses cells from early embryos to clone a mammal (sheep) by nuclear transfer at the British Agricultural Research Council's Institute of Animal Physiology, Cambridge.^[3]^[4]

Chemistry and physics

Peter Kramer^[5] and Dan Shechtman^[6] publish their discoveries of what will soon afterwards be named quasicrystals.^[7]
Hiroshi Kobayashi and colleagues announce synthesis of tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate ("BARF").^[8]

Computer science

January 24 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States. It will be the first successful PC to use a graphical user interface.
June 6 – The Tetris tile-matching video game, designed by Alexey Pajitnov, is launched in the Soviet Union.^[9]

History of science

Robert Gwyn Macfarlane publishes Alexander Fleming: The Man and the Myth.

Paleontology

The fossil skeleton of the hominid "Turkana Boy" is discovered in Kenya.

Physiology and medicine

February 3 – Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
April 22 – Dr. Robert Gallo and Margaret Heckler of United States Public Health Service announce the discovery of HTLV-III as the virus that causes AIDS.
May 10 – Barbara H. Bowman and Oliver Smithies show that variations in haptoglobins are due to genetic polymorphisms.^[10]

Technology

May 5 – Itaipu Dam in South America begins to generate hydroelectricity.
July 21 – In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.

Awards

Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
- Chemistry – Robert Bruce Merrifield
- Medicine – Niels K. Jerne, Georges J. F. Köhler, César Milstein
Turing Award – Niklaus Wirth

Births

May 14 – Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and entrepreneur, co-founder of social media platform Facebook.

Deaths

February 21 – Anna Baetjer (b. 1899), American toxicologist.
April 8 – Pyotr Kapitsa (b. 1894), Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
April 15 – Grete Hermann (b. 1901), German mathematician and philosopher
May 13 – Stanislaw Ulam (b. 1909), Polish American mathematician.
May 24 – Sir Stanley Hooker (b. 1907), English aeronautical engineer.
August 6 – Abraham Lilienfeld (b. 1920), American epidemiologist.
August 11 – George Streisinger (b. 1927), Hungarian American molecular biologist, the first person to clone a vertebrate.
October 20 – Paul Dirac (b. 1902), English-born physicist.
November 20 – Charles C. Conley (b. 1933), American mathematician working on dynamical systems.
December 20 – Stanley Milgram (b. 1933), American social psychologist.

References

^ Brown, David (2001-06-19). "The 'recipe for disaster' that killed 80 and left a £5bn bill". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
^ Greider, Carol W.; Blackburn, Elizabeth H. (December 1985). "Identification of a Specific Telomere Terminal Transferase Activity in Tetrahymena Extracts". Cell. 43 (2:1): 405–13. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9. PMID 3907856.
^ Willadsen, S. M. (1986). "Nuclear transplantation in sheep embryos". Nature. 320 (6057): 63–65. Bibcode:1986Natur.320...63W. doi:10.1038/320063a0. PMID 3951549.
^ Willadsen, S. M. (1989). "Cloning of sheep and cow embryos". Genome. 31 (2): 956–62. doi:10.1139/g89-167.
^ Kramer, P.; Neri, R. (1984). "On periodic and non-periodic space fillings of E^m obtained by projection". Acta Crystallographica. A40 (5): 580. doi:10.1107/S0108767384001203.
^ Shechtman, D.; Blech, I.; Gratias, D.; Cahn, J. (1984). "Metallic Phase with Long-Range Orientational Order and No Translational Symmetry". Physical Review Letters. 53 (20): 1951–4. Bibcode:1984PhRvL..53.1951S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.1951.
^ Levine, Dov; Steinhardt, Paul Joseph (1984). "Quasicrystals: A New Class of Ordered Structures". Physical Review Letters. 53 (26): 2477–80. Bibcode:1984PhRvL..53.2477L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.2477.
^ Nishida, H.; Takada, N.; Yoshimura, M.; Sonods, T.; Kobayshi, H. (1984). "Tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate: Highly Lipophilic Stable Anionic Agent for Solvent-Extraction of Cations". Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan. 57 (9): 2600–2604. doi:10.1246/bcsj.57.2600.
^ Paul, Franklin (2009-06-02). "At 25, Tetris still eyeing growth". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
^ Maeda, Nobuyo; Yang, Funmei; Barnett, Don R.; Bowman, Barbara H.; Smithies, Oliver (1984). "Duplication within the haptoglobin Hp 2 gene". Nature. 309 (5964): 131–135. Bibcode:1984Natur.309..131M. doi:10.1038/309131a0. PMID 6325933.

[1] Brown, David (2001-06-19). "The 'recipe for disaster' that killed 80 and left a £5bn bill". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2014-12-02.

[2] Greider, Carol W.; Blackburn, Elizabeth H. (December 1985). "Identification of a Specific Telomere Terminal Transferase Activity in Tetrahymena Extracts". Cell. 43 (2:1): 405–13. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9. PMID 3907856.

[3] Willadsen, S. M. (1986). "Nuclear transplantation in sheep embryos". Nature. 320 (6057): 63–65. Bibcode:1986Natur.320...63W. doi:10.1038/320063a0. PMID 3951549.

[4] Willadsen, S. M. (1989). "Cloning of sheep and cow embryos". Genome. 31 (2): 956–62. doi:10.1139/g89-167.

[5] Kramer, P.; Neri, R. (1984). "On periodic and non-periodic space fillings of E^m obtained by projection". Acta Crystallographica. A40 (5): 580. doi:10.1107/S0108767384001203.

[6] Shechtman, D.; Blech, I.; Gratias, D.; Cahn, J. (1984). "Metallic Phase with Long-Range Orientational Order and No Translational Symmetry". Physical Review Letters. 53 (20): 1951–4. Bibcode:1984PhRvL..53.1951S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.1951.

[7] Levine, Dov; Steinhardt, Paul Joseph (1984). "Quasicrystals: A New Class of Ordered Structures". Physical Review Letters. 53 (26): 2477–80. Bibcode:1984PhRvL..53.2477L. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.2477.

[8] Nishida, H.; Takada, N.; Yoshimura, M.; Sonods, T.; Kobayshi, H. (1984). "Tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate: Highly Lipophilic Stable Anionic Agent for Solvent-Extraction of Cations". Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan. 57 (9): 2600–2604. doi:10.1246/bcsj.57.2600.

[9] Paul, Franklin (2009-06-02). "At 25, Tetris still eyeing growth". Reuters. Retrieved 2014-12-02.

[10] Maeda, Nobuyo; Yang, Funmei; Barnett, Don R.; Bowman, Barbara H.; Smithies, Oliver (1984). "Duplication within the haptoglobin Hp 2 gene". Nature. 309 (5964): 131–135. Bibcode:1984Natur.309..131M. doi:10.1038/309131a0. PMID 6325933.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]