1989 in science

The year 1989 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.

Astronomy

• August – the asteroid 4769 Castalia is the first asteroid directly imaged, by radar from Arecibo.
• September 5 – Pluto–Charon barycentre comes to perihelion.^[1]
• Asteroid 5128 Wakabayashi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
• 4292 Aoba is discovered.
• 4871 Riverside is discovered.
• 6089 Izumi is discovered.
• 6190 Rennes is discovered
• 8084 Dallas is discovered.

Biology

• The New Zealand Department of Conservation begins to implement a Kakapo Recovery Plan.^[2]

Environment

• The global concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reaches 350 ppm (parts per million) by volume.

Computer science

• July 26 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer virus, making him the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Medicine

• The Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials begins publishing online.^[3]

Physics

• March 23 – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt, Wolfgang Paul
  • Chemistry – Sidney Altman, Thomas R. Cech
  • Medicine – J. Michael Bishop, Harold E. Varmus
• Turing Award – William (Velvel) Kahan

Deaths

• February 27 – Konrad Lorenz (born 1903), zoologist.
• August 12 – William Bradford Shockley (born 1910), physicist.
• August 20 – George Adamson (born 1906), wildlife conservationist.
• August 29 – Peter Scott (born 1909), conservationist.
• October 11 – M. King Hubbert (born 1903), geophysicist.
• December 14 – Andrei Sakharov (born 1921), nuclear physicist.

References