1996 in science

none 1996 science 1996 The year 1996 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below. Astronomy and space exploration thumb|right|250px|The cloning process that produced Dolly. January 30 – Comet Hyakutake is discovered.Comet Hyakutake in March 1996 http://epod.usra.edu/library/comet_011510.html epod.usra.edu 20 February 2018 February 17 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft launched. The craft landed on asteroid 433 Eros in 2001.Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker https://www.britannica.com/topic/Near-Earth-Asteroid-Rendezvous-Shoemaker Encyclopedia Britannica 2018-02-20 en May – First naked-eye observation of Comet Hale-Bopp.Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spacewatch/comets.html www.pbs.org 20 February 2018 June 4 – The European Space Agency's Cluster is lost when the maiden flight of the Ariane 5 rocket fails, self-destructing 37 seconds after launch from the Guiana Space Centre because of a software bug in the computer control system.Gleick James A Bug and A Crash http://www.around.com/ariane.html New York Times Magazine 2012-04-07 1996-12-01 2012-04-20 https://web.archive.org/web/20120420204657/http://www.around.com/ariane.html dead October 3 – Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez demonstrate the existence of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy, later identified as a black hole.Eckart A. Genzel R. 10.1038/383415a0 Observations of stellar proper motions near the Galactic Centre Nature 383 6599 415 1996 1996Natur.383..415E 4285760 free November 7 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.Mars Global Surveyor https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/globalsurveyor/ mars.nasa.gov 27 February 2008 20 February 2018 The second 9.8 m reflecting telescope opens at Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii.Keck telescopes https://www.britannica.com/topic/Keck-telescopes Encyclopedia Britannica 20 February 2018 en Biology July 5 – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at The Roslin Institute in Scotland.1997: Dolly the sheep is cloned https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22/newsid_4245000/4245877.stm BBC News 20 February 2018 22 February 1997 August 6 – NASA announces that the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite thought to originate from Mars, may contain evidence of primitive life-forms;CNN - Ancient meteorite may point to life on Mars - Aug. 7, 1996 http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/9608/06/mars.life/ https://web.archive.org/web/20100423002616/http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/9608/06/mars.life/ dead April 23, 2010 CNN 20 February 2018 further tests are inconclusive. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae's genome is sequenced, the first eukaryotic genome to be fully sequenced.10.1534/g3.113.008995 24374639 3962479 The Reference Genome Sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Then and Now G3 4 3 389–398 2014 Engel Stacia R. Dietrich Fred S. Fisk Dianna G. Binkley Gail Balakrishnan Rama Costanzo Maria C. Dwight Selina S. Hitz Benjamin C. Karra Kalpana Nash Robert S. Weng Shuai Wong Edith D. Lloyd Paul Skrzypek Marek S. Miyasato Stuart R. Simison Matt Cherry J. Michael Chemistry February 9 – Copernicium first created at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany, by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov and others.10.1007/BF02769517 The new element 112 Zeitschrift für Physik A 354 3 229–230 1996 Hofmann S. Ninov V. Heßberger F. P. Armbruster P. Folger H. Münzenberg G. Schött H. J. Popeko A. G. Yeremin A. V. Saro S. Janik R. Leino M. 1996ZPhyA.354..229H 119975957 Computer science January The Google web search engine originates as "BackRub", a research project using PageRank by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, PhD students at Stanford University, California.http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html Our history in depth Corporate Information 2012-04-16 First USB specification issued. January 23 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.Davis Daniel Paul Hysterically Historical: January II 2015 Booktango 9781468964226 71 https://books.google.com/books?id=-eZwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT71 en February 10 – Deep Blue defeats chess grand-master Garry Kasparov for the first time.Newborn Monty Beyond Deep Blue: Chess in the Stratosphere 2011 Springer Science & Business Media 9780857293411 7–9 https://books.google.com/books?id=J10kBdYNBNwC&pg=PA7 en April 3 – Jennifer Ringley becomes an early practitioner of lifecasting (video stream), from her dorm room at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.Jennicam And The Birth Of 'Lifecasting' http://digg.com/2015/reply-all-jennicam Digg 13 April 2015 20 February 2018 en October – The Shetland Times and The Shetland News become involved in a landmark legal case over alleged copyright infringement and deep linking in their websites.Smartt Ursula Media & entertainment law 2014 Taylor & Francis Abingdon, Oxon 9781317808169 425 Second The page ranking web search engine RankDex is originated by Robin Li.Greenberg Andy https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robin-li-man-whos-beating-google_2.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090922194042/http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robin-li-man-whos-beating-google_2.html dead September 22, 2009 The Man Who's Beating Google Forbes 2009-10-0510.1109/4236.707687 Toward a qualitative search engine IEEE Internet Computing 2 4 24–29 1998 Yanhong Li 1998IIC.....2d..24Y 14854613 http://www.rankdex.com/about.html About RankDex IDD Information Services 2014-06-04USPTO, "Hypertext Document Retrieval System and Method" https://web.archive.org/web/20111205225726/http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT5920859&id=x04ZAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=yanhong+li&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q=yanhong%20li&f=false 2011-12-05 , US Patent number: 5920859, Inventor: Yanhong Li, Filing date: 5 February 1997, Issue date: 6 July 1999. Brewster Kahle, with Bruce Gilliat, develops the Wayback Machine software to crawl and archive World Wide Web pages.Kahle Brewster Archiving the Internet http://www.uibk.ac.at/voeb/texte/kahle.html Scientific American 2011-08-19 March 1997 2012-04-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20120403042627/http://www.uibk.ac.at/voeb/texte/kahle.html dead Lov Grover, at Bell Labs, publishes the quantum database search algorithm.The first quantum search algorithm on a scalable quantum computer has important implications https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604068/quantum-computing-now-has-a-powerful-search-tool/ MIT Technology Review 20 February 2018 en IRCnet is founded.Getting information from the IRC system: Linux Basic. AL1-032 NOITE S.C. 5 https://books.google.com/books?id=5jSMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PP5 pl Exploration May 23 – Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.Historical Badass: Goran Kropp, the Man Who Rode to Everest - adventure journal https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/06/historical-badass-goran-kropp-the-man-who-rode-to-everest/ www.adventure-journal.com 20 February 2018 21 February 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180221161458/https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/06/historical-badass-goran-kropp-the-man-who-rode-to-everest/ dead Medicine March The Cochrane Library launched.About the Cochrane Library http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutTheCochraneLibrary.html#ABOUT The Cochrane Library 2011-01-25 https://web.archive.org/web/20110105124021/http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutTheCochraneLibrary.html#ABOUT 2011-01-05 dead The role of CCR5 in HIV/AIDS infection begins to be published.Samson M. Labbe O. 1 Molecular cloning and functional expression of a new human CC-chemokine receptor gene Biochemistry 35 11 3362–7 March 1996 8639485 10.1021/bi952950g July 7–12 – XI International AIDS Conference, 1996, Vancouver, reports major advances in the management of HIV/AIDS including combination therapy (the "triple cocktail") using protease inhibitors.S. M. Hammer etal A controlled trial of two nucleoside analogues plus indinavir in persons with human immunodeficiency virus infection The New England Journal of Medicine 337 11 725–33 September 1997 9287227 10.1056/NEJM199709113371101 24043435 free Within a week after the conference, over 75,000 patients who have been using antibiotics and chemotherapy as treatment against opportunistic infections begin an effective antiviral regimen which greatly increases their immune system strength and therefore their health.Engel Jonathan The Epidemic 2006 Smithsonian Books/Collins New York 978-0-06-114488-2 246 https://archive.org/details/epidemicaglobalh00enge/page/246 New variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease first identified in humans, in the United Kingdom.10.1016/S0140-6736(96)91412-9 8598754 A new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the UK The Lancet 347 9006 921–925 1996 Will R. G. Ironside J. W. Zeidler M. Estibeiro K. Cousens S. N. Smith P. G. Alperovitch A. Poser S. Pocchiari M. Hofman A. 1996Lanc..347..921W 14230097 Montreal Cognitive Assessment is created by Ziad Nasreddine in Montreal, Quebec.Nasreddine Z. S. etal The Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA: a brief screening tool for mild cognitive impairment Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 53 4 695–9 2005 15817019 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2005.53221.x 9014589 Donepezil (Aricept), a palliative treatment for moderate Alzheimer's disease, is approved in the United States.10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/03738-4 Alzheimer's Disease: Antidementive Drugs International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 418–423 2001 Hofmann M. Hock C. 9780080430768 10.1016/B978-012351830-9/50034-2 Cholinergic Treatments of Alzheimer's Disease Functional Neurobiology of Aging 475–486 2001 Tsopelas Nicholas D. Marin Deborah B. 9780123518309 10.1016/B0-08-045044-X/00168-1 Neurodegeneration Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II 193–228 2007 Bozyczko-Coyne D. Williams M. 9780080450445 Sildenafil (Viagra), a treatment for erectile dysfunction, is patented by Pfizer.8858389 Sildenafil: an orally active type 5 cyclic GMP-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor for the treatment of penile erectile dysfunction International Journal of Impotence Research 8 2 47–52 1996 Boolell M. Allen M. J. Ballard S. A. Gepi-Attee S. Muirhead G. J. Naylor A. M. Osterloh I. H. Gingell C. Meteorology January 7 – A large blizzard hits the Eastern United States, killing 60.Lipman Don One wild storm: A look back at the 'Blizzard of '96' https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/one-wild-storm-a-look-back-at-the-blizzard-of-96/2013/01/07/89a1242c-5875-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_blog.html Washington Post 20 February 2018 7 January 2013 May 15 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills at least 443 people.Death Toll in Bangladesh Tornado Rises to at Least 443 https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/15/world/death-toll-in-bangladesh-tornado-rises-to-at-least-443.html The New York Times 20 February 2018 15 May 1996 July 18–21 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec,GEOSCAN Search Results: Fastlink https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/starweb/geoscan/servlet.starweb?path=geoscan/fulle.web&search1=R=209234 geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca 20 February 2018 en 2015-12-07 in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.'What am I going to do?': Saguenay resident recalls flood that swept away his home https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/saguenay-quebec-floods-20-year-anniversary-1.3684983 CBC News 20 February 2018 en Paleontology August – The first fossil specimen of the dinosaur named Sinosauropteryx prima is uncovered in China; it is the first theropod to show evidence of feathers.Ji Q. Ji S. 1996 On the discovery of the earliest bird fossil in China (Sinosauropteryx gen. nov.) and the origin of birds https://www.naturalhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/media/translated_publications/Ji%26amp%3BJi_96.pdf Chinese Geology 10 233 30–33 2025-09-28 2025-11-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20250928205635/https://www.naturalhistory.si.edu/sites/default/files/media/translated_publications/Ji%26amp%3BJi_96.pdf dead Philosophy Australian philosopher David Chalmers publishes The Conscious Mind: in search of a fundamental theory.The Conscious Mind David J. Chalmers https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195117899.html www.oupcanada.com 20 February 2018 Technology Zenith introduces the first HDTV-compatible front projection television in the United States. Broadcasters, TV & PC manufacturers set industry standards for digital HDTV.Constable George Somerville Bob A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements that Transformed Our Lives 2003 Joseph Henry Press 9780309089081 71 https://books.google.com/books?id=IyVFweSZu0cC&pg=PA71 en APS film format is introduced.Andrews Philip Langford's Starting Photography: The Guide to Creating Great Images 2015 CRC Press 9781317552833 46 https://books.google.com/books?id=hNOoCgAAQBAJ&pg=SA2-PA46 en Publications May – Sokal affair: American mathematical physicist Alan Sokal hoaxes the editors into publishing a deliberately nonsensical paper, "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity", in a "science wars" issue of the journal Social Text (Duke University Press)10.2307/466856 466856 Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity Social Text 46/47 217–252 1996 Sokal Alan D. 1546862 as a critique of the intellectual rigor of postmodernism in academic cultural studies.http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies 2015-03-09 Sokal Alan D. Lingua Franca May 1996 Belgian physical chemist Ilya Prigogine publishes La Fin des certitudes (translated as The End of Certainty: time, chaos, and the new laws of nature).Prigogine Ilya La Fin des certitudes Éditions Odile Jacob French 1 January 1996 French-born archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat publishes How Writing Came About.How Writing Came About en 9780292774865 1996-06-05 Schmandt-Besserat Denise University of Texas Press Awards Nobel PrizeNobel Prizes 1996 https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/year/?year=1996 www.nobelprize.org 20 February 2018 Physics: David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson Chemistry: Robert Curl, Sir Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley Medicine: Peter C. Doherty, Rolf M. Zinkernagel Kyoto Prize Willard Van Orman Quine is awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for his "outstanding contributions to the progress of philosophy in the 20th century by proposing numerous theories based on keen insights in logic, epistemology, philosophy of science and philosophy of language."Willard Van Orman Quine http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/laureates/k12_c_willard/ctn_e.html Inamori Foundation 15 December 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20130720223632/http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/laureates/k12_c_willard/ctn_e.html 2013-07-20 dead Turing Award for Computing: Amir PnueliAmir Pnueli https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amir-Pnueli Encyclopedia Britannica 20 February 2018 en Wollaston Medal for Geology: Nicholas John ShackletonThe Geological Society of London - Wollaston Medal https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/About/History/Award-Winners-Since-1831/Wollaston-Medal www.geolsoc.org.uk 21 February 2018 Births July 5 – Dolly (d. 2003), Scottish sheep, the world's first cloned mammal.Dolly the sheep https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-world/dolly-the-sheep/ National Museums Scotland 21 February 2018 en 21 February 2018 https://web.archive.org/web/20180221101206/https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-world/dolly-the-sheep/ dead Deaths January 12 – Bartel Leendert van der Waerden (b. 1903), Dutch mathematician.Sets and Extensions in the Twentieth Century 2012 Elsevier 9780080930664 175 https://books.google.com/books?id=RBrWwKVbmMUC&pg=PA175 en February 20 – Solomon Asch (b. 1907), Polish American social psychologist.About Solomon Asch http://www.brynmawr.edu/aschcenter/about/solomon.htm www.brynmawr.edu 21 February 2018 6 August 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20190806035010/http://www.brynmawr.edu/aschcenter/about/solomon.htm dead March 19 – Chen Jingrun (b. 1933), Chinese mathematician.Song Yuwu Biographical Dictionary of the People's Republic of China https://books.google.com/books?id=DGbyzKLVh30C&pg=PA35 2014 McFarland 978-1-4766-0298-1 35 March 26 – David Packard (b. 1912), American electrical engineer.Obituary: David Packard https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-david-packard-1344506.html https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-david-packard-1344506.html 2022-05-01 subscription live The Independent 21 February 2018 28 March 1996 June 6 – George Davis Snell (b. 1903), American mouse geneticist and basic transplant immunologist.George Davis Snell - American geneticist https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Davis-Snell Encyclopedia Britannica 21 February 2018 en June 17 – Thomas Kuhn (b. 1922), American philosopher of science.Obituary: Thomas S. Kuhn (18 July 1922 - 17 June 1996) 285595 Social Studies of Science 27 3 483–502 1997 Edge David Harre Rom Brown Andrew Barnes Barry Mulkay Michael Fuller Steve Rudwick Martin Giere Ronald N. Bloor David 10.1177/030631297027003005 11619257 28154701 August 1 – Tadeusz Reichstein (b. 1897), Polish-Swiss winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Tadeus Reichstein - Biographical https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1950/reichstein-bio.html www.nobelprize.org 21 February 2018 August 9 – Sir Frank Whittle (b. 1907), English aeronautical engineer.Obituaries: Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-air-commodore-sir-frank-whittle-1309015.html https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-air-commodore-sir-frank-whittle-1309015.html 2022-05-01 subscription The Independent 21 February 2018 10 August 1996 August 12 – Victor Ambartsumian (b. 1908), Soviet Armenian theoretical astrophysicist.Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian - Armenian astronomer https://www.britannica.com/biography/Viktor-Amazaspovich-Ambartsumian Encyclopedia Britannica 21 February 2018 en September 1 – Karl Kehrle (Brother Adam) (b. 1898), British Benedictine monk and beekeeper.Brother Adam - British apiarist https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brother-Adam Encyclopedia Britannica 21 February 2018 en September 10 – Hans List (b. 1896), Austrian inventor.HANS LIST 1896-1996 September 20 – Paul Erdős (b. 1913), Hungarian-born mathematician.Paul Erdős - Hungarian mathematician https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Erdos Encyclopedia Britannica 21 February 2018 en October 5 – Seymour Cray (b. 1925), American supercomputer architect.Seymour R. Cray - American engineer https://www.britannica.com/biography/Seymour-R-Cray Encyclopedia Britannica 21 February 2018 en November 13 – Bobbie Vaile (b. 1959), Australian astrophysicist.U-W - Women in Astronomy: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Science Reference Services, Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/womenastro/womenastro-uw.html www.loc.gov 21 February 2018 November 19 – Grace Bates (b. 1914), American mathematician.Beery Janet L. Janet Beery Greenwald Sarah J. Jensen-Vallin Jacqueline A. Mast Maura B. Maura Mast Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America 2017 Springer 9783319666945 97 https://books.google.com/books?id=eDVBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 en November 21 – Abdus Salam (b. 1926), Punjabi-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.10.1098/rsbm.1998.0025 Muhammad Abdus Salam, K. B. E.. 29 January 1926–21 November 1996 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 44 387–401 1998 Kibble T. W. B. free December 20 – Carl Sagan (b. 1934), American astronomer.CNN - Carl Sagan dies at 62 - Dec. 20, 1996 http://edition.cnn.com/US/9612/20/sagan/ https://web.archive.org/web/20060220204613/http://edition.cnn.com/US/9612/20/sagan/ dead February 20, 2006 CNN 21 February 2018 References 30em 1990s Science Category:20th century in science Category:1990s in science