1998 In Science

Article Index for
1998 In

Website Links For
1998

Information About

1998 In Science

''See also:''

Other Events Of 1998

List Of Years In Science

...

1997 In Science

1998 in science

1999 In Science

...

The year 1998 in Science and Technology had many significant events, including those listed below.

ASTRONOMY AND SPACE EXPLORATION

January 6 - The Lunar Prospector Spacecraft is launched into Orbit around the Moon and later found evidence for frozen Water on the moon's surface.

January 8 - Cosmologist s announce that the expansion rate of the Universe is increasing.

March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo Spaceprobe indicates that Jupiter 's Moon Europa has a liquid Ocean under a thick crust of Ice .

March 5 - NASA announced that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon had found enough Water in polar craters to support a Human Colony and Rocket fueling station.

May 23 - Explorer I ceases transmission.

July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars , and thus joins the United States and Russia as a Space exploring nation.

October 29 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20 , 1962 .

The first of four 8.4 m Reflecting Telescope s opens in the Very Large Telescope program of the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal in Chile .

BIOLOGY

July 17 - Biologist s report in the journal '' Science '' how they sequenced the Genome of the Bacterium that causes Syphilis , '' Treponema Pallidum ''.

February 19 - RNA Interference first elucidated in C. Elegans .

COMPUTER SCIENCE

February 10 - XML is published as a recommendation of the W3C .

June 2 - The CIH Virus is discovered in Taiwan .

The first working 2-qubit Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Computer is demonstrated at the University Of California, Berkeley .

GEOLOGY

February 4 - An Earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.

March 14 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.

May 30 - A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.

July 17 - A Tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.

MATHEMATICS

Luca Cardelli and Andrew D. Gordon develop Ambient Calculus .

Thomas Hales (almost certainly) proves the Kepler Conjecture .

MEDICINE

January 14 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an Enzyme that slows aging and cell death ( Apoptosis ).

TECHNOLOGY

April 5 - In Japan , the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu , at a cost of about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest Suspension Bridge in the world.

AWARDS

Nobel Prize

--- Physics - Robert B. Laughlin , Horst L. Störmer , Daniel C. Tsui

--- Chemistry - Walter Kohn , John Pople

--- Medicine - Robert F. Furchgott , Louis J. Ignarro , Ferid Murad

BIRTHS

DEATHS

March 15 - Benjamin Spock (b. 1903 ), Pediatrician , writer.

July 3 - Danielle Bunten Berry (b. 1949 ), a.k.a. Dan Bunten, software developer.

July 21 - Alan Shepard (b. 1923 ), Astronaut .

August 4 - Yuri Artyukhin (b. 1930 ), Cosmonaut .

August 26 - Frederick Reines (b. 1918 ), Physicist , Nobel Laureate .

December 17 - Claudia Benton , Child Psychologist.

December 18 - Lev Demin (b. 1926 ), Cosmonaut .