1995 in science

The year 1995 in science and technology involved many significant events, listed below.

Archaeology

• January 18 - In southern France near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc a network of caves are discovered that contain paintings and engravings that are 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
• Wes Linster discovers the first intact skeleton of Bambiraptor feinbergi.

Astronomy

• Asteroid 6349 is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
• February: Project Phoenix begins looking for extraterrestrial transmissions using the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere.
• October 6: 51 Pegasi b: Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the University of Geneva at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence announce in Nature the first definitive detection of an extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star (51 Pegasi).
• The "Big Ear" at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory ends its full time SETI radio survey, having run continuously for 22 years, beginning in 1973.

Biology

• The genome of Haemophilus influenzae is the first genome of a free living organism to be sequenced.

Computer science

• March 25 - Ward Cunningham loads the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, in Oregon
• May 23 - The Java programming language is announced to the world.

Medicine

• January 30 - Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.

Neuroscience

• The RELN gene and Reelin protein are discovered by Gabriella D'Arcangelo and colleagues, solving the mystery behind the formation of "inverted cortical layers" in the brain of reeler mutant mice, and sparking an avalanche of research into the Reelin's role in neurodevelopment.

Psychology

• Elizabeth Loftus describes the "Lost in the mall technique" as a demonstration that confabulations can be created through suggestions to experimental subjects.^[1]

Space exploration

• March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Martin L. Perl, Frederick Reines
  • Chemistry - Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
  • Medicine - Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric Wieschaus
  • Peace - Joseph Rotblat
• Turing Award - Manuel Blum
• Wollaston Medal for Geology - George Patrick Leonard Walker

Births

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Deaths

• January 30 - Gerald Durrell (b. 1925), British wildlife conservationist.
• March 24 - Joseph Needham (b. 1900), English biochemist & writer on the history of science and technology in China.
• April 2 - Hannes Alfvén (b. 1908), Swedish astrophysicist.
• June 23 - Jonas Salk (b. 1914), American medical researcher.
• August 11 - Alonzo Church (b. 1903), American mathematician.

References

	1990s portal
	Science portal