2007 in science

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3 March 2007: A total lunar eclipse occurs (time lapse shown).

The year 2007 involved many significant scientific events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy

• 12 January – Comet McNaught reaches perihelion and becomes visible from Earth during daylight. ^[1]
• 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. ^[2]
• 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. ^[3]
• May – High Resolution Fly's Eye Observatory (HiRes) and Pierre Auger Observatory present their results suggesting a confirmation for the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin limit, the theoretical limit for ultra-high-energy cosmic rays interacting with the Cosmic Microwave Background.
• 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 Ceres in 2015. ^[4]
• 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.

Biology

• 14 January – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce they have genetically engineered chickens to lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins. ^[5]
• 7 February – The second "Berlin Patient", Timothy Ray Brown, is given a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying the CCR5-Δ32 allele, which cures his HIV/AIDS. ^[6]

Computer Science

• 9 January – Apple Inc.'s first iPhone smartphone is announced by Steve Jobs at Macworld in San Francisco; ^[7] it is released in the United States on 29 June.
• 27 April – US researchers simulate half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer. ^[8]
• 23 August – Chris Messina proposes use of the hashtag on Twitter. ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]}
• 5 November – The Open Handset Alliance launches the Android mobile operating system.

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

26 October 2007: Arthur Kornberg, Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist, dies aged 89.

• 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
• 23 March – Paul Cohen (b. 1934), American mathematician, winner of the 1966 Fields Medal
• 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 and her ex-husband Donald Michie (b. 1923), British AI researcher (automobile accident
• 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
• 12 August – Ralph Asher Alpher (b. 1921), American cosmologist
• 29 September – Katsuko Saruhashi (b. 1920), Japanese geochemist
• 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

• 2007 in spaceflight
• List of emerging technologies

References

1. Rao, Joe (2007). "New Comet is Brightest in 30 Years". Space.com. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
2. "Total Lunar Eclipse March 2007". ESA. 4 March 2007. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
3. Than, Ker (24 April 2007). "Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life". Space.com. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
4. "Dawn departs Vesta to become first asteroid hopper". New Scientist . 6 September 2012. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
5. "Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced". BBC News. 14 January 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
6. Holt, Nathalia (2015) [2014]. Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV. Penguin. ISBN   978-0-14-218184-3. OCLC   937872774
7. Honan, Mathew (9 January 2007), Apple unveils iPhone, Macworld, archived from the original on 15 April 2008, retrieved 25 September 2012
8. "Mouse brain simulated on computer". BBC News. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
9. Messina, Chris [@chrismessina] (2007-08-23). "how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?" (Tweet). Retrieved 2019-09-30– via Twitter.
10. Parker, Ashley (2011-06-10). "Twitter's Secret Handshake". The New York Times . Retrieved 2011-07-26.
11. "Hashtag inventor: It was an 'accidental trip over a simple idea'". BBC News . 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
12. "The Inventor of the Twitter Hashtag Explains Why He Didn't Patent It". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-03-19.