2007 in science
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The year 2007 involved many significant scientific events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.
Events, discoveries and inventions
- 9 January – Apple Inc.'s first iPhone smartphone is announced by Steve Jobs at Macworld in San Francisco;[1] it is released on 29 June.
- 12 January – Comet McNaught reaches perihelion and becomes visible from Earth during daylight.[2]
- 14 January – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce they have genetically engineered chickens to lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins.[3]
- 28 February – The New Horizons space probe makes a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter to change its trajectory towards Pluto.
- 3–4 March – A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and in all of Europe and Africa.[4]
- 19 March – A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in Asia.
- 10 April – Spectroscopic analysis of HD 209458 b, an extrasolar planet, provides the first evidence of atmospheric water vapor beyond the Solar System.
- 24 April – The potentially habitable exoplanet Gliese 581 c is discovered in the constellation Libra.[5]
- 27 April – US researchers simulate half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer.[6]
- 5 June – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second flyby of Venus en route to Mercury, which it reaches in 2011.
- 2 July – Venus and Saturn are in conjunction, with a separation of 46 arcseconds.
- 28 August – A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and all of Australasia and the Pacific Ocean.
- 11 September – A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in southern areas of South America.
- 27 September – NASA's Dawn spacecraft is launched, beginning its journey to the asteroid belt objects Vesta and Ceres. It reached Vesta in 2011, and will reach Ceres in 2015.[7]
- 24 October
- Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly brightens from 17 to 2.8 magnitude.
- Chang'e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center; on 5 November it enters lunar orbit.
Prizes
Abel Prize
Main article: Abel Prize
- 2007 Abel Prize: S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
Nobel Prize
Main articles: List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine, List of Nobel laureates in Physics and List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry
- 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans
- 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg
- 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl
Deaths
- 20 February – F. Albert Cotton (b. 1930), American chemist known for research on transition metal chemistry.
- 22 February – Lucille Farrier Stickel (b. 1915), American wildlife toxicologist.
- 27 March – Paul Lauterbur (b. 1929), American chemist, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing magnetic resonance imaging.
- 4 April – Karen Spärck Jones (b. 1935), English computer scientist.
- 7 July – Dame Anne McLaren (b. 1927), English developmental biologist.
- 23 July – Ernst Otto Fischer (b. 1918), German winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering work in the area of organometallic chemistry.
- 26 October – Arthur Kornberg (b. 1918), American biochemist, winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of DNA.
See also
References
- ↑ Honan, Mathew (9 January 2007), Apple unveils iPhone, Macworld, retrieved 25 September 2012
- ↑ Rao, Joe (2007). "New Comet is Brightest in 30 Years". Space.com. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ "Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced". BBC News. 14 January 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ↑ "Total Lunar Eclipse March 2007". ESA. 4 March 2007. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ Than, Ker (24 April 2007). "Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life". Space.com. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ "Mouse brain simulated on computer". BBC News. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
- ↑ "Dawn departs Vesta to become first asteroid hopper". New Scientist. 6 September 2012.
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