2000 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 2000 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy and space exploration
- May 4 – A rare conjunction occurs on the New MoonNew moonIn astronomical terminology, the new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth...
including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of UranusUranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the SunSunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
and MoonMoonThe Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
, MercuryMercury (planet)Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, JupiterJupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, and SaturnSaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
. - August 10 – Publication of the M-sigma relationM-sigma relationThe M-sigma relation is an empirical correlation between the stellar velocity dispersion \sigma of a galaxy bulge and the mass M of the supermassive black hole atthe galaxy's center.The relation can be expressed mathematically as...
in The Astrophysical Journal.
Biology
- June 26 – 'Rough draft' of the human genomeHuman Genome ProjectThe Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
is announced jointly by President of the United States Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and British Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. - December 14 – The full genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thaliana is a small flowering plant native to Europe, Asia, and northwestern Africa. A spring annual with a relatively short life cycle, arabidopsis is popular as a model organism in plant biology and genetics...
is published in NatureNature (journal)Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
. - 10-year Census of Marine LifeCensus of Marine LifeThe Census of Marine Life was a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans...
launched.
Medicine
- January 31 – EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
doctor Harold ShipmanHarold ShipmanHarold Fredrick Shipman was an English doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history with 218 murders being positively ascribed to him....
is found guilty of killing fifteen of his elderly patients by lethal injections of diamorphine, the only British physicianPhysicianA physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
ever convicted of murdering his patients; he is actually considered to have killed at least 215.
Awards
- Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s- PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
– Zhores Alferov, Herbert KroemerHerbert KroemerHerbert Kroemer , a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1952 from the University of Göttingen, Germany, with a dissertation on hot electron effects in the then-new transistor, setting the stage...
, Jack KilbyJack KilbyJack St. Clair Kilby was an American physicist who took part in the invention of the integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments in 1958. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000. He is credited with the invention of the integrated circuit or microchip... - ChemistryNobel Prize in ChemistryThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
– Alan J Heeger, Alan G MacDiarmid, Hideki ShirakawaHideki ShirakawaHideki Shirakawa is a Japanese chemist and winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of conductive polymers together with physics professor Alan J. Heeger and chemistry professor Alan G... - MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
– Arvid CarlssonArvid CarlssonArvid Carlsson is a Swedish scientist who is best known for his work with the neurotransmitter dopamine and its effects in Parkinson's disease...
, Paul GreengardPaul GreengardPaul Greengard is an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous...
, Eric R. KandelEric R. KandelEric Richard Kandel is an American neuropsychiatrist who was a recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons...
- Physics
- Turing AwardTuring AwardThe Turing Award, in full The ACM A.M. Turing Award, is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the...
: Andrew YaoAndrew YaoAndrew Chi-Chih Yao is a prominent computer scientist and computational theorist. Yao used the minimax theorem to prove what is now known as Yao's Principle.Yao was born in Shanghai, China... - Wollaston Medal for GeologyWollaston MedalThe Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
: William Sefton Fyfe
Deaths
- March 10 – Nim ChimpskyNim ChimpskyNim Chimpsky was a chimpanzee who was the subject of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University, led by Herbert S. Terrace....
(b. 19731973 in scienceThe year 1973 in science and technology involved one significant event, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 7 - Comet Kohoutek is discovered* April 6 - Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft...
), chimpanzeeChimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:... - May 19 – Yevgeny KhrunovYevgeny KhrunovYevgeni Vassilyevich Khrunov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 5/Soyuz 4 mission.He was born in Prudy.Yevgeni Khrunov was a colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union and Kandidat of Technical Sciences ....
(b. 1933), cosmonautAstronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.... - June 14 – Elsie WiddowsonElsie WiddowsonDr Elsie Widdowson FRS , was a British scientist responsible for overseeing the government mandated addition of vitamins to food and war-time rationing in Britain during World War II....
(b. 19081908 in scienceThe year 1908 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France....
), nutritionistNutritionistA nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts — some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical... - September 20 – Gherman TitovGherman TitovGherman Stepanovich Titov was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on August 6, 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1...
(b. 1935), cosmonaut - October 4 – Michael SmithMichael Smith (chemist)Michael Smith, CC, OBC, FRS was a British-born Canadian biochemist who won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.-Biography:...
(b. 1932), chemist, 1993 Nobel Prize winner - November 20 – Nikolay DollezhalNikolay DollezhalNikolay Antonovich Dollezhal was a Soviet mechanical engineer, a key figure in Soviet atomic bomb project and chief designer of nuclear reactors from the first plutonium production reactor to the RBMK....
(b. 1899), a key figure in Soviet atomic bomb project and chief designer of nuclear reactors