March 2006 in science

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Events in Science

31 March 2006

• MINOS (the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) finds indication for neutrino oscillation in experiments with artificially created neutrinos. The data supports previous measurements on atmospheric neutrinos by Super Kamiokande and SNO, as well as data from the K2K experiment. (BBC) (PhysOrg.com) (MINOS)
• German company Kleinmann GmbH recall their Magic Nano household glass and ceramic tile sealant in an aerosol can after the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) issue a product warning. This is the first health-related recall of an alleged nanotechnology consumer product. (nanotechwire)

March 30 2006

• NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency launch the thirteenth mission to the International Space Station when Expedition 13 takes off. This mission marks the first time a Brazilian has been in space. (MSNBC)

March 27 2006

• NASA reverses an earlier decision and reinstates the Dawn mission, intended to visit two asteroids. (AP/YahooNews)

March 25 2006

• Australia: A scramjet jet engine designed to fly at 7 times the sonic speed has been successfully tested. The British-designed HyShot III (on back of a two stage Terrier-Orion rocket) was launched at Woomera up to 314 km height; falling back to Earth, speed may reach Mach 7.6 (9,000 km/h). It is hoped the engine could reduce flight times between London and Sydney to only two hours. (BBC)

March 24 2006

• The inaugural launch of Falcon 1 ends in failure shortly after the rocket engines are started. According to company sources it achieved about one minute of controlled flight before it was destroyed. (SpaceRef.com)(BBC)

March 23 2006

• The Abel Prize of 2006 is awarded to Lennart Carleson. (BBC)

March 21 2006

• Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announce that the aggressive virus clade of the H5N1 bird flu has evolved into two distinct subtypes, sometime in 2005. (BBC)

March 20 2006

• Rising temperatures may partly explain increasing cases of malaria in regions of Africa, new research suggests.(BBC)

March 19 2006

• UK scientists from Norwich have used a plant virus to create nanotechnology building blocks. (BBC)

March 17 2006

• Hackers have managed to get Microsoft's Windows XP operating system running on an Apple Intel Mac computer. The success ends a competition started to see if the feat was even possible when Apple unveiled computers that used Intel chips. (BBC)
• University of Texas at Dallas scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen. (BBC)
• Bill Gates publicly criticizes the $100 laptop project during the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum. (Reuters/YahooNews)

March 16 2006

• The WMAP collaboration publishes the first measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Scientists expect to test the various models of the assumed inflationary period of the early universe with this data. (SpaceRef.com)

March 15 2006

• The UK Biobank starts to collect DNA samples to create the world's largest study on the genetic and environmental origins of diseases. (BBC)

March 14 2006

• The launch of the next space shuttle is delayed due to a faulty 10-year old fuel gauge in the external hydrogen tank. (AP/YahooNews)
• Using the microlensing effect, astronomers publish the discovery of an extrasolar planet at a distance of 9,000 light years and with the size of about 13 Earth masses. (BBC)

March 13 2006

• Scientists for the Stardust mission announce that they found the mineral olivine in the samples returned from the comet 81P/Wild. This and other minerals identified form only in high-temperature environments. (Spaceflight Now)
• Google unveils the web site mars.google.com, which presents a zoomable map of the planet Mars using data provided by researchers at Arizona State University. (SpaceRef.com)

March 12 2006

• Managers of the Galileo positioning system project declare the GIOVE-A satellite a full success and delay the launch of GIOVE-B, which was on a "hastened" schedule to secure the allotted frequency. (BBC)

March 11 2006

• The fourth launch of the heavy lift version Ariane 5ECA successfully places two satellites in orbit. (BBC)
• A large oil spill is discovered at Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska. It is estimated that about 267,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from a corroded pipeline before it was fixed. (BBC)

March 10 2006

• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully reaches orbit around the planet Mars. (BBC)
• Researchers report that the newly discovered Laotian Rock Rat, at first placed into a new family of the Laonastidae, is most likely a member of the Diatomyidae family, which was believed to be extinct for 11 million years. (AP/YahooNews)

March 9 2006

• Mission scientists for the Cassini-Huygens mission publish their conclusion in Science that they found liquid water close to the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. (AP/YahooNews)
• Microsoft unveils the "Ultra Mobile PC" with a Windows XP derived operating system, previously called Project Origami. (AFP/YahooNews)

March 8 2006

• The world's biggest Expo on information technology, CeBIT, opens in Hanover, Germany. (news.com)
• Three research teams publish their analyses of the gamma ray burst GRB 050904 in Nature. It is estimated to be about 12.8 billion light years away, which makes it the most distant GRB detected up to now. (Reuters/YahooNews)
• Purdue University starts an investigation into alleged scientific misconduct by Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, who pioneered the research of bubble fusion. At the same time, Nature publishes an interview with several colleagues of Taleyarkhan, detailing some alleged conduct. (Reuters/YahooNews)

March 7 2006

• JAXA announces it has successfully contacted the Hayabusa spacecraft, located close to the asteroid 25143 Itokawa. (AP/YahooNews)
• A storm, designated Oval BA, in the cloudy atmosphere of Jupiter has strengthened and turned red. It is now nicknamed Red Jr since it resembles the Great Red Spot storm, which has been observed for centuries. (BBC)

March 6 2006

• For the first time, NASA scientists publish a prediction of the next sunspot cycle. It estimates the new cycle to start between late 2007 and early 2008, and to be about 30 to 50 % stronger than the cycle that just ended, which peaked in 2001. (AP/YahooNews)

March 4 2006

• The companies Research In Motion and NTP agree on a settlement in their highly publicized patent dispute. (Reuters)

March 3 2006

• The WMO announces the detection of the onset of a La Nina event in the Pacific Ocean. (Reuters/YahooNews)
• The government of Peru announces it will sue Yale University to recover artifacts taken from the Machu Picchu site. (BBC)

March 2 2006

• The Dawn spacecraft mission slated to visit two minor planets is cancelled by NASA. (SpaceRef.com)

March 1 2006

• The asteroid 2004 VD₁₇ is upgraded to level two on the Torino Scale and becomes the highest rated known space object on that scale. (SpaceRef.com)
• An attempt to launch Arabsat 4A into orbit fails, when the final rocket stage does not work properly. Russian mission engineers investigate the cause of the mishap. (AP/YahooNews)
• The Royal Society of Chemistry opens its archive of journal articles to users in Africa for free. (BBC)

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2004 in science: November December
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