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1987 in science
Last updated
May 30, 2025
Overview of the events of 1987 in science
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v
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1987 in science
1986
1988
Fields
Archaeology
Technology
Sustainable energy research
Transportation technology
Social sciences
Psychology
Governance and policy studies
Paleontology
Dinosaurs' extinction
Extraterrestrial environment
Spaceflight
Terrestrial environment
Environment and environmental sciences
Tornado research
Other/related
Literature
Philosophy
Timeline of cosmological theories
List of open letters by academics
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List of science timelines
v
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The year
1987 in science
and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.
Contents
Astronomy
Biochemistry
Computing
Genetics
History of science
Mathematics
Medicine
Paleoanthropology
Paleontology
Physics
Technology
Zoology
Awards
Births
Deaths
References
Astronomy
February 23 –
Supernova 1987a
is observed, the first "naked-eye"
supernova
since
1604
.
Asteroid 7816 Hanoi
is discovered by
Masahiro Koishikawa
.
10500 Nishi-koen
is discovered.
[
1
]
Biochemistry
December –
Yoshizumi Ishino
discovers the DNA sequence of
CRISPR
.
[
2
]
[
3
]
Piotr Chomczynski and Nicoletta Sacchi publish their
acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction
protocol.
[
4
]
[
5
]
Computing
Larry Wall
releases the first version of the
Perl
programming language
via the comp.sources.misc newsgroup.
HyperCard
is released by
Apple Inc.
, an early example of
hypermedia
which inspires the
World Wide Web
.
Thomas Knoll
and
John Knoll
develop the first version of
Photoshop
.
Genetics
November 6 – Florida
rapist
Tommy Lee Andrews is the first person to be convicted as a result of
DNA fingerprinting
.
[
6
]
History of science
Robert V. Bruce
publishes
The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876
.
Mathematics
Gödel's ontological proof
of the existence of God is published posthumously.
[
7
]
The
Abelian sandpile model
, the first discovered example of a
dynamical system
displaying
self-organized criticality
, is published by
Per Bak
,
Chao Tang
and
Kurt Wiesenfeld
.
[
8
]
Medicine
March 20 – The United States
Food and Drug Administration
for the first time approves an
antiretroviral drug
for the treatment of
HIV/AIDS
,
zidovudine
, also known as AZT (azidothymidine) or Retrovir.
[
9
]
May – The name
chronic fatigue syndrome
first appears in the medical literature.
[
10
]
May 11 – The first
heart-lung transplant
takes place.
August 31 – The FDA for the first time approves a
statin
,
lovastatin
.
[
11
]
[
12
]
September 5 - The first successful surgical separation of craniopagus twins is done by Dr.
Ben Carson
.
December 29 –
Prozac
makes its debut in the U.S.
Paleoanthropology
January 1 – The '
Mitochondrial Eve
' hypothesis is proposed.
[
13
]
Paleontology
First
fossils
of
Argentinosaurus
found.
Physics
March 18 –
Woodstock of physics
, the marathon session of the
American Physical Society
's meeting featuring 51 presentations concerning the science of
high-temperature superconductors
.
Harry J. Lipkin
names the
pentaquark
.
[
14
]
Technology
December 1 –
Channel Tunnel
digging commences.
Tinker Hatfield
designs the
Nike Air Max
.
Maglite
introduces the 2AAA Mini Maglite flashlight, targeted for medical and industrial applications.
Zoology
June 17 – The last known purebred
dusky seaside sparrow
, "Orange Band", dies in
Florida
.
[
15
]
Varroa destructor
, an invasive parasite of honeybees, is found in the United States.
Awards
Nobel Prizes
Physics
–
J. Georg Bednorz
,
Karl Alexander Müller
Chemistry
–
Donald J. Cram
,
Jean-Marie Lehn
,
Charles J. Pedersen
Medicine
–
Susumu Tonegawa
Turing Award
–
John Cocke
Wollaston Medal for Geology
–
Claude Jean Allègre
Births
June 10 –
James Maynard
, English mathematician
[
16
]
Deaths
March 19 –
Louis de Broglie
(b.
1892
),
French
physicist
and winner of the
Nobel Prize in Physics
(1929).
March 26 –
Gwyn Macfarlane
(b.
1907
),
British
hematologist
.
October 2 –
Peter Medawar
(b.
1915
), British
immunologist
and winner of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
(1960).
October 13 –
Walter Houser Brattain
(b.
1902
),
American
physicist.
October 20 –
Andrey Kolmogorov
(b.
1903
),
Russian
mathematician
.
December 2 –
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
(b.
1914
),
Belarusian
astrophysicist
.
December 7 –
Helen Porter
(b.
1899
),
English
plant physiologist
.
References
↑
Schmadel, Lutz D. (10 June 2012).
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
. Springer Science & Business Media. p.
740.
ISBN
978-3-642-29718-2
.
↑
Ishino, Y.; Shinagawa, H.; Makino, K.; Amemura, M.; Nakata, A. (1987).
"Nucleotide sequence of the iap gene, responsible for alkaline phosphatase isozyme conversion in Escherichia coli, and identification of the gene product"
.
Journal of Bacteriology
.
169
(12):
5429–
33.
doi
:
10.1128/jb.169.12.5429-5433.1987
.
PMC
213968
.
PMID
3316184
.
↑
"CRISPR Natural History in Bacteria"
.
Quanta Magazine
. Retrieved
2019-04-01
.
↑
Chomczynski, P.; Sacchi, N. (1987). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction".
Analytical Biochemistry
.
162
(1):
156–
159.
doi
:
10.1016/0003-2697(87)90021-2
.
PMID
2440339
.
↑
Chomczynski, P.; Sacchi, N. (2006). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction: Twenty-something years on".
Nature Protocols
.
1
(2):
581–
585.
doi
:
10.1038/nprot.2006.83
.
PMID
17406285
.
S2CID
28653075
.
↑
"Gene Technology"
. Txtwriter.com. 1987-11-06. p.
14. Archived from
the original
on 2010-06-11
. Retrieved
2010-04-03
.
↑
Gödel, Kurt (1995). "Ontological Proof".
Collected Works: Unpublished Essays & Lectures
. Vol.
3. Oxford University Press. pp.
388,
403–
404.
ISBN
0-19-514722-7
.
↑
Bak, P.; Tang, C.; Wiesenfeld, K. (1987). "Self-organized criticality: an explanation of 1/
ƒ
noise".
Physical Review Letters
.
59
(4):
381–
4.
Bibcode
:
1987PhRvL..59..381B
.
doi
:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381
.
PMID
10035754
.
S2CID
7674321
.
↑
Cimons, Marlene (21 March 1987). "U.S. Approves Sale of AZT to AIDS Patients".
Los Angeles Times
. p.
1.
↑
Buchwald, Dedra
; Sullivan, John L.; Komaroff, Anthony L. (May 1987).
"Frequency of 'Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection' in a General Medical Practice"
.
Journal of the American Medical Association
.
257
(17):
2303–
7.
doi
:
10.1001/jama.257.17.2303
.
PMID
3033338
. Retrieved
2011-07-29
.
↑
FDA Orange Book Detail for application N019643
[
dead link
]
showing approval for 20 mg tablets on August 31, 1987, and 40 mg tablets on December 14, 1988
↑
Endo, Akira (October 2004). "The origin of the statins".
Atherosclerosis Supplements
.
5
(3):
125–
30.
doi
:
10.1016/j.atherosclerosissup.2004.08.033
.
ISSN
1567-5688
.
PMID
15531285
.
↑
Cann, Rebecca L.; Stoneking, Mark;
Wilson, Allan C.
(1 January 1987). "Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution".
Nature
.
325
(6099):
31–
36.
Bibcode
:
1987Natur.325...31C
.
doi
:
10.1038/325031a0
.
PMID
3025745
.
S2CID
4285418
.
↑
Lipkin, H. J. (1987). "New possibilities for exotic hadrons — anticharmed strange baryons".
Physics Letters B
.
195
(3):
484–
488.
Bibcode
:
1987PhLB..195..484L
.
doi
:
10.1016/0370-2693(87)90055-4
.
↑
Newsweek
9 June 2008 p. 45.
↑
Klarreich, Erica (2022-07-05).
"A Solver of the Hardest Easy Problems About Prime Numbers: On his way to winning a Fields Medal"
.
Quanta Magazine
. Retrieved
2022-07-05
.
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