1994 in science

none 1994 science 1994 The year 1994 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below. Archaeology and paleontology March 31 – The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull, significant in the study of human evolution. December 18 – Chauvet Cave discovered by Jean-Marie Chauvet and other speleologists near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardèche department of southern France, containing some of the earliest known cave paintings of animals, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life.Chauvet Jean-Marie Eliette Brunel Deschamps Christian Hillaire Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave 1996 Harry N. Abrams New York 978-0-8109-3232-6 registration https://archive.org/details/dawnofartchauvet0000chauClottes Jean Paul G. Bahn (translator) Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times 2003 University of Utah Press Salt Lake City 978-0-87480-758-5 214 The Australopithecus skeleton "Little Foot" is identified in South Africa. Astronomy and space exploration January 8 – Soyuz TM-18: Valeri Polyakov begins his 437.7-day orbit of the Earth, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit. February 3 – Asteroid (136617) 1994 CC is discovered. February 21 – Revealing of the first photo of Pluto and its moon Charon taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. July 16–22 – The fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet Jupiter. July 21 – R. Ibata, M. Irwin, and G. Gilmore discover the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, considered the closest galaxy to the Milky Way until 2003.1994Natur.370..194I A dwarf satellite galaxy in Sagittarius Ibata R. A. Gilmore G. Irwin M. J. 370 1994 194–196 Nature 10.1038/370194a0 6486 4335789 October 13 (UTC) – NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft after a successful mission as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus and is presumed to burn up in the atmosphere. Asteroid 7484 Dogo Onsen is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa. 14032 Mego is discovered. 8C 1435+63 is discovered and at z=4.25 becomes the most distant known galaxy.1994MNRAS.271..504L 8C 1435+635: A radio galaxy at z = 4.25 Lacy M. Miley G. Rawlings S. Saunders R. Dickinson M. Garrington S. Maddox S. Pooley G. Steidel C. C. Bremer M.N. Cotter G. van Ojik R. Röttgering H. Warner P. 271 2 1994 504–512 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 10.1093/mnras/271.2.504 free astro-ph/9411007 Spinrad Hyron Keck Observations of the Most Distant Galaxy: 8C1435+63 at z=4.25 The Astrophysical Journal 438 L51 Dey Arjun Graham James R 1994 10.1086/187713 1995ApJ...438L..51S 37520541 Biology and medicine May 18 – The Flavr Savr, a genetically modified tomato, is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA, becoming the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. September 10 – Wollemia (the 'Wollemi Pine'), previously known only from fossils, is discovered living in remote rainforest gorges in the Wollemi National Park of New South Wales by David Noble.James Woodford The Wollemi Pine: the incredible discovery of a living fossil from the age of the dinosaurs rev. Text Publishing Co 2002 978-1-876485-74-0 October – First public demonstration of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.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 December 15 – Publication of the "Fukuda" clinical description of chronic fatigue syndrome.Fukuda, Keiji Straus, Stephen E. Hickie, Ian Sharpe, Michael C. Dobbins, James G. Komaroff, Anthony International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Comprehensive Approach to Its Definition and Study Annals of Internal Medicine 121 12 953–9 15 December 1994 7978722 10.7326/0003-4819-121-12-199412150-00009 510735 The Dingiso or tree-kangaroo of Western New Guinea is first seen by scientists.Flannery, T. F. Tim Flannery Boeadi Szalay, A. L. 1995 A new tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus: Marsupialia) from Irian Jaya, Indonesia, with notes on ethnography and the evolution of tree-kangaroos Mammalia 59 1 65–84 10.1515/mamm.1995.59.1.65 85107840 Gilbert's potoroo is rediscovered in Australia having been thought extinct. Flora of China begins publication. The first gene linked to Alzheimer's disease is discovered. No new linked genes would be found until 2009.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12937131 Five more Alzheimer's genes discovered, scientists say James Gallagher 2011-04-04 BBC News 2018-01-12 The BRCA1 gene is cloned by scientists at University of Utah, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and Myriad Genetics.US 5747282 patent 7Q-linked breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene 1998-05-05 1995-06-07 Skolnick, H. S.; Goldgar, D. E.; Miki, Y.; Swenson, J.; Kamb, A.; Harshman, K. D.; Shattuck-Eidens, D. M.; Tavtigian, S. V.; Wiseman, R. W.; Futreal, P. A. Myriad Genetics, Inc., The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, University of Utah Research Foundation.Miki, Y. Swensen, J. Shattuck-Eidens, D. Futreal, P. A. Harshman, K. Tavtigian, S. Liu, Q. Cochran, C. Bennett, L. M. Ding, W. A strong candidate for the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1 Science 266 5182 66–71 October 1994 7545954 10.1126/science.7545954 1994Sci...266...66M The Western Hemisphere is declared free of polio. Chemistry November 9 – Darmstadtium first detected at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg, under the direction of Prof. Sigurd Hofmann.10.1007/BF01291181 Production and decay of 269110 1995 Zeitschrift für Physik A 350 277–280 Hofmann S. Ninov V. Heßberger F. P. Armbruster P. Folger H. Münzenberg G. Schött H. J. Popeko A. G. Yeremin A. V. A. N. Andreyev S. Saro R. Janik M. Leino 1995ZPhyA.350..277H 4 125020220 December 8 – The first three atoms of Roentgenium are observed by an international team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI in Darmstadt.10.1007/BF01291182 The new element 111 1995 Hofmann, S. Zeitschrift für Physik A 350 281–282 Ninov V. Heßberger F. P. Armbruster P. Folger H. Münzenberg G. Schött H. J. Popeko A. G. Yeremin A. V. A. N. Andreyev S. Saro R. Janik M. Leino 1995ZPhyA.350..281H 4 18804192 http://wwwsusi4.gsi.de/forschung/kp/kp2/ship/111publication.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20140116120246/http://wwwsusi4.gsi.de/forschung/kp/kp2/ship/111publication.pdf 2014-01-16 Computer science January – Jerry Yang and David Filo create "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web", a hierarchically organised website, while studying at Stanford University; in April it is renamed Yahoo!Who is Jerry Yang? http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/who-is-jerry-yang-168111 NDTV NDTV Convergence Limited 2013-05-27 Agence France Presse 2012-01-18 March 14 Apple Computer, Inc. releases the Power Macintosh, the first Macintosh computers to use the new PowerPC microprocessors. The Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released after over two years of development. April 12 – Husband-and-wife law partners Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel post the first massive commercial spam on Usenet in the United States. July 5 – Jeff Bezos launches Amazon. c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pizza-hut_n_3894981 Pizza Hut Tells Twitter It Made The First Online Sale In 1994 HuffPost 2021-11-15 2013-09-09 2019-11-05 https://web.archive.org/web/20191105115930/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pizza-hut_n_3894981 livehttps://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/index.html?ver=293#1990s Hobbes' Internet Timeline 25 Zakon.org 2018-08-14 2020-11-11 https://web.archive.org/web/20201111235130/https://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/index.html?ver=293#1990s live October 1 – The World Wide Web Consortium is founded by Tim Berners-Lee, becoming the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. c. November – Online service America Online purchases Booklink as a browser to offer its users a gateway to the World Wide Web for the first time. This marks the beginning of easy accessibility of the Web to the average person in the U.S.America Online Buys 2 Internet Companies 1994-11-10 Lewis, Peter New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/10/business/america-online-buys-2-internet-companies.html In 1996, AOL replaces Booklink with a browser based on Internet Explorer, allegedly in exchange for inclusion of AOL in Windows.CNET https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/aol-exec-details-choosing-ie/ AOL exec details choosing IE Hu, Jim 2002-01-02 December 3 – Sony release the PlayStation fifth generation home video game console in Japan.Business Development/Japan (1994~2004) http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatajpn2004_e.html Sony 2012-02-22 https://web.archive.org/web/20110703205240/http://scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatajpn2004_e.html 2011-07-03 December 15 – Netscape launch the Netscape Navigator web browser, for which it creates HTTP Secure.https://books.google.com/books?id=FLvsis4_QhEC&pg=PA344 Embedded software Walls Colin 2005 344 Elsevier 2012-01-28 978-0-7506-7954-1 Leonard Adleman describes the experimental use of DNA as a computational system to solve a seven-node instance of the Hamiltonian path problem, the first known instance of the successful use of DNA to compute an algorithm.Leonard M. Adleman Molecular Computation of Solutions To Combinatorial Problems Science 266 5187 1994-11-11 1021–4 10.1126/science.7973651 7973651 2885489 1994Sci...266.1021A Penguin Books offer Peter James' novel Host on two floppy disks as "the world's first electronic novel".http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20130206103002/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm February 6, 2013 All Eight Roy Grace Novels by Peter James Now Available in e-Book Format in the United States: Author of "the world's first electronic novel" in 1994 prweb 2013-01-31 2015-10-31 Earth sciences December 21 – Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano, dormant for 47 years, resumes eruption. Mathematics September 19 – Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem: English mathematician Andrew Wiles devises a new approach to the final proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, sending his proof to colleagues on October 6 and submitting for publication on October 24. The tennis ball theorem is first published under this name by Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold.Arnol'd V. I. 20. The tennis ball theorem 10.1090/ulect/005 978-0-8218-0308-0 1286249 53–58 American Mathematical Society Providence, RI University Lecture Series Topological invariants of plane curves and caustics 5 1994 https://archive.org/details/topologicalinvar0000arno/page/53Martinez-Maure Yves 10.2307/2975192 4 American Mathematical Monthly 1383672 338–340 A note on the tennis ball theorem 103 1996 2975192 Molecular biology Green fluorescent protein is successfully expressed in C. elegans, starting its career as a fluorescent marker. Technology May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to complete, officially opens between England and France; it will enable passengers to travel by rail between the two countries in 35 minutes. August 16 – The world's first smartphone, the IBM Simon, goes on sale.World's first 'smartphone' celebrates 20 years https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28802053 BBC 15 August 2014 17 August 2014 The first high-brightness blue LED is achieved, an invention that earns the researchers a Nobel Prize in 2014.Overbye Dennis Dennis Overbye Nobel Prize in Physics https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/science/isamu-akasaki-hiroshi-amano-and-shuji-nakamura-awarded-the-nobel-prize-in-physics.html 7 October 2014 The New York Times 7 October 2014 QR code invented by Japanese company Denso. Awards Fields Prize in Mathematics: Efim Isakovich Zelmanov, Pierre-Louis Lions, Jean Bourgain and Jean-Christophe Yoccoz Nobel Prizes Physics – Bertram N. Brockhouse, Clifford G. Shull Chemistry – George A. Olah Medicine – Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell Turing Award – Edward Feigenbaum, Raj Reddy Wollaston Medal for Geology – William Jason Morgan Deaths January 25 – Stephen Cole Kleene (b. 1909), American mathematician. April 17 – Roger Wolcott Sperry (b. 1913), American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. May 12 – Erik Erikson (b. 1902), German American psychologist. July 29 – Dorothy Hodgkin (b. 1910), British biochemist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. August 19 – Linus Pauling (b. 1901), American chemist. August 29 – Arthur Mourant (b. 1904), Jersiais hematologist. October 28 – Calvin Souther Fuller (b. 1902), American physical chemist at AT&T Bell Laboratories. References 1990s Science Category:20th century in science Category:1990s in science