January

• 3 January – American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson
  Johnson & Johnson
  Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
  
   announces a partnership for the development of a test for the detection of metastatic cancer in the bloodstream. (Belfast Telegraph) (The Independent)
• 5 January
  • Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania
    University of Pennsylvania
    The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
    
     find that a major cause of baldness
    Baldness
    Baldness implies partial or complete lack of hair and can be understood as part of the wider topic of "hair thinning". The degree and pattern of baldness can vary greatly, but its most common cause is male and female pattern baldness, also known as androgenic alopecia, alopecia androgenetica or...
    
     may be related to the inability of some stem cells to grow into full-sized hair follicle
    Hair follicle
    A hair follicle is a skin organ that produces hair. Hair production occurs in phases, including a growth phase , and cessation phase , and a rest phase . Stem cells are principally responsible for the production of hair....
    
    s. (FOX News)
  • An engineer from the University of Missouri
    University of Missouri
    The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
    
     announces his ambition to create a flexible solar sheet of small nano-antennas, capable of capturing solar energy with 90% efficiency; current solar panel technology captures around 20%. (EurekAlert)
• 6 January – The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is a monthly psychology journal of the American Psychological Association. It is considered one of the top journals in the fields of social and personality psychology. Its focus is on empirical research reports; however, specialized theoretical,...
  
  , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychological Association
  American Psychological Association
  The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
  
  , announces that it will shortly publish a paper presenting strong evidence of ESP, the ability to sense future events. (CBS) (ABC)
• 10 January – Kepler-10b
  Kepler-10b
  Kepler-10b is the first confirmed terrestrial planet to have been discovered outside the Solar System. Discovered after several months of data collection during the course of the NASA-directed Kepler Mission, which aims to discover Earth-like planets crossing in front of their host stars, the...
  
  , the first confirmed small rocky exoplanet, is discovered in the Draco constellation
  Draco (constellation)
  Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. Draco is circumpolar for many observers in the northern hemisphere...
  
   using NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
  's Kepler space telescope. (BBC) (NASA)
• 12 January – Researchers announce that salty junk food
  Junk food
  Junk food is an informal term applied to some foods that are perceived to have little or no nutritional value ; to products with nutritional value, but which also have ingredients considered unhealthy when regularly eaten; or to those considered unhealthy to consume at all...
  
   can damage arteries in as little as thirty minutes after being eaten. (MSNBC)
• 14 January – A study conducted at the Innsbruck Medical University
  Innsbruck Medical University
  The Innsbruck Medical University is a university in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. It used to be one of the fours historical faculties of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck but became an independent university in 2004.- History :The medical tradition dates back long before the foundation of...
  
   in Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
   reveals that stainless steel
  Stainless steel
  In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
  
   or titanium
  Titanium
  Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
  
   tongue piercing
  Tongue piercing
  A tongue piercing is a body piercing usually done directly through the center of the tongue, and is the most popular piercing site in the western world after the ear and nostril.-History and culture:...
  
  s harbor more bacteria
  Bacteria
  Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
  
   than plastic piercings. (Science News)
• 15 January – In a study funded by the US National Cancer Institute, researchers reveal that smoking
  Smoking
  Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
  
   cigarette
  Cigarette
  A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
  
  s damages the body in minutes rather than years. (BBC)
• 18 January – Researchers in Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
   announce that shark
  Shark
  Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
  
  s are colourblind, after examining the eyes of 17 separate shark species. (BBC)
• 19 January – A Cochrane Library
  Cochrane Library
  The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases in medicine and other healthcare specialties provided by the Cochrane Collaboration and other organisations. At its core is the collection of Cochrane Reviews, a database of systematic reviews and meta-analyses which summarize and interpret the...
  
   review suggests that antioxidant
  Antioxidant
  An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
  
  s may improve male fertility. (BBC)
• 20 January
  • A landmark study unveils a medical technique that renders T-cells resistant to HIV
    HIV
    Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
    
    . (Daily Tech)
  • The World Meteorological Organization
    World Meteorological Organization
    The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 189 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization , which was founded in 1873...
    
     concludes that 2010 was the joint-hottest year on record. (WMO)
  • Scientists achieve 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement
    Quantum entanglement
    Quantum entanglement occurs when electrons, molecules even as large as "buckyballs", photons, etc., interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description , which is...
    
     in silicon
    Silicon
    Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
    
    , a significant step in quantum computing. (PhysOrg)
• 21 January – An article in Science
  Science (journal)
  Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
  
  reveals the discovery of a Darwinopterus
  Darwinopterus
  Darwinopterus is a genus of pterosaur, discovered in China and named after biologist Charles Darwin. Between 30 and 40 fossil specimens have been identified, all collected from the Tiaojishan Formation, which dates to the middle Jurassic period. The type species, D. modularis, was described in...
  
  pterosaur
  Pterosaur
  Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...
  
   in China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
   with an unhatched egg, thereby allowing the genders to be differentiated. (BBC)
• 24 January
  • Researchers publish direct evidence that massive volcanic eruptions took place 250 million years ago, likely causing the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the biggest single extinction event in Earth's history. (World.edu)
  • An article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences...
    
    reveals the discovery of Linhenykus
    Linhenykus
    Linhenykus is an extinct genus of alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China. It is the most basal known member of the Parvicursorinae. The genus gets its name from Linhe, a city near the site where fossils were first found and Greek onyx, "claw"...
    
     monodactylus, an alvarezsaurid
    Alvarezsauridae
    Alvarezsauridae is an enigmatic family of small, long-legged running dinosaurs. Although originally thought to represent the earliest known flightless birds, a consensus of recent work suggests that they are primitive members of the Maniraptora. Other work found them to be the sister group to the...
    
     theropod dinosaur
    Dinosaur
    Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
    
    , in Inner Mongolia
    Inner Mongolia
    Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
    
    ; though a cousin to the giant Tyrannosaurus rex, it is no bigger than a modern parrot
    Parrot
    Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
    
    , and possesses only one claw on each forelimb. (BBC)
  • Scientists and students have built a 3D printer that makes edible food. (CNN Money)
• 26 January – The number of Internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
   users worldwide reaches approximately 2 billion. (PhysOrg)
• 27 January – Under pressure from industry and governments, the European Commission
  European Commission
  The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
  
   is putting the final touches on a strategy to reduce Europe
  Europe
  Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
  
  ’s dependence on Chinese
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
  -supplied rare earth metals, which are essential in export products like cars and electronics. (New York Times)
• 30 January – Molybdenite
  Molybdenite
  Molybdenite is a mineral of molybdenum disulfide, MoS2. Similar in appearance and feel to graphite, molybdenite has a lubricating effect that is a consequence of its layered structure. The atomic structure consists of a sheet of molybdenum atoms sandwiched between sheets of sulfur atoms...
  
   is revealed to be up to 100,000 times more efficient than silicon
  Silicon
  Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
  
   transistors, and to have better electrical properties than graphene
  Graphene
  Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...
  
  . (EurekAlert)

February

• 2 February – The Linac Coherent Light Source
  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S...
  
  , an X-ray
  X-ray
  X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
  
   source a billion times brighter than previous sources, becomes operational at Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
  , potentially revolutionizing existing 3D bioanalysis
  Bioanalysis
  Bioanalysis is a sub-discipline of analytical chemistry covering the quantitative measurement of xenobiotics and biotics in biological systems.-Modern bioanalytical chemistry:Many scientific endeavors are dependent upon...
  
   techniques, especially in the analysis of protein
  Protein
  Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
  
  s and virus
  Virus
  A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
  
  es. (Stanford)
• 3 February
  • A blood test to detect vCJD is developed by British scientists, who say it could identify healthy people who are carriers of the disease. (BBC)
  • Further data from the Kepler space telescope published in Nature
    Nature (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...
    
    reveals that the star Kepler-11
    Kepler-11
    Kepler-11 is a sun-like star slightly larger than the Sun in the constellation Cygnus, located some 2,000 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission uses to detect planets that may be transiting their stars...
    
    , located 2,000 light years from Earth, has a solar system including six planets, which range between two and four-and-a-half times the radius of Earth, and between two and thirteen times its mass. Five orbit the star closer than Mercury
    Mercury (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...
    
     orbits our Sun, and all are likely to have atmospheres made of light gases, and to be too hot to support life. The data also includes details of more than 1,000 additional exoplanet candidates. (BBC)
• 4 February – Scientists reveal a tiny artificial brain
  Brain
  The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
  
  , derived from rat
  Rat
  Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
  
   neuron
  Neuron
  A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
  
  s, that exhibits 12 seconds of short-term memory. (PopSci)
• 7 February – Scientists at Oxford University successfully test a universal flu vaccine, which should work against all known strains of the illness. (The Guardian)
• 9 February – Using 25 years of evidence from over 470,000 participants, researchers show that sleep deprivation
  Sleep deprivation
  Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
  
   and disrupted sleep patterns can have long-term, serious health implications. (EurekAlert)
• 10 February – Scientists identify the root molecular cause of a variety of illnesses brought on by advanced age, including waning energy, failure of the heart
  Heart
  The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
  
   and other organs, and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. (PhysOrg)
• 11 February – Scientists show that stem cell
  Stem cell
  This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
  
  s delivered via a nasal
  Nose
  Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the...
  
   spray lead to an improvement of motor functions in rats with Parkinson's disease
  Parkinson's disease
  Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
  
  -like symptoms. (Neuroscience News)
• 15 February
  • A significant milestone in artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
    
     is reached, as the Watson IBM supercomputer
    Watson (artificial intelligence software)
    Watson is an artificial intelligence computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first president, Thomas J...
    
     defeats two humans on the Jeopardy!
    Jeopardy!
    Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
    
    quiz show
    Quiz Show
    Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
    
    . (Wired)
  • Scientists report stimulation of mouse
    Mouse
    A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
    
     muscle fibers in a way similar to the regeneration of severed limbs in newts and salamanders. (Medical Daily)
• 16 February – Researchers find a way of manipulating tiny swimming robots, just 1.3 millimetres long, using electric currents in water. (New Scientist) (American Physical Society)
• 17 February
  • Scientists build the world's first anti-laser, capable of absorbing an incoming laser
    Laser
    A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
    
     beam entirely. (BBC)
  • A hummingbird
    Hummingbird
    Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings...
    
    -like "Nano Air Vehicle" is demonstrated for the first time, in an attempt to secure a DARPA contract to create small surveillance aircraft. (AeroVironment)
• 19 February – Scientists reveal the results of a cosmic census, which suggest there are at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way
  Milky Way
  The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
  
  , at least 500 million of which are in the Goldilocks zone where life could exist. (PhysOrg)
• 20 February – Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
   researchers create new stretchable solar cell
  Solar cell
  A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
  
  s that could power artificial electronic 'super skin', capable of detecting chemicals and biological molecules. The potential applications include clothing, robotics, prosthetic limbs and more. (Stanford) (AAAS)
• 21 February – New research indicates that bilingual speakers are better at multitasking
  Human multitasking
  Human multitasking is the best performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time. The term is derived from computer multitasking. An example of multitasking is taking phone calls while typing an email...
  
  , because they are better at editing out irrelevant information; this overturns previous assumptions of bilingualism causing confusion, especially in children. (PennState) (AAAS)
• 22 February
  • The first complete millimeter-scale computing system is developed. (EurekAlert) (ISSCC)
  • Chinese
    Chinese people
    The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
    
     scientists calculate a quantum
    Quantum
    In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
    
     law of protein folding
    Protein folding
    Protein folding is the process by which a protein structure assumes its functional shape or conformation. It is the physical process by which a polypeptide folds into its characteristic and functional three-dimensional structure from random coil....
    
     that explains the impact of temperature on folding. (TechReview) (arXiv)
  • The first full-color quantum dot
    Quantum dot
    A quantum dot is a portion of matter whose excitons are confined in all three spatial dimensions. Consequently, such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules. They were discovered at the beginning of the 1980s by Alexei...
    
     display prototype is unveiled by Samsung
    Samsung
    The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
    
    . (TechReview)
• 28 February
  • Scientists at Yale University
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
    
     demonstrate that bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) can be blow-molded into shapes that would be impossible with normal metals without loss in strength or durability. (Science Daily)
  • A pacemaker
    Pacemaker
    An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
    
     the size of a Tic Tac is announced by Medtronic
    Medtronic
    Medtronic, Inc. , based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company and is a Fortune 500 company.- History :...
    
    . (TechReview)

March

• 1 March
  • UK researchers demonstrate the highest-resolution optical microscope
    Microscope
    A microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy...
    
     ever – capable of imaging objects as little as 50 nanometres across. (BBC)
  • Scientists have determined how to generate a backward-pulling force from a forward-propagating beam, effectively creating a form of "tractor beam
    Tractor beam
    A tractor beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. Since the 1990s, technology and research has labored to make it a reality, mostly at microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is called a pressor beam or repulsor beam...
    
    ". (TechReview) (arXiv)
  • Swiss researchers discover a gene in wasp
    Wasp
    The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
    
    s that allow them to reproduce asexually
    Asexual reproduction
    Asexual reproduction is a mode of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single parent, and inherit the genes of that parent only, it is reproduction which does not involve meiosis, ploidy reduction, or fertilization. A more stringent definition is agamogenesis which is reproduction without...
    
    . (PhysOrg)
• 4 March
  • Researchers transform a human embryonic stem cell
    Embryonic stem cell
    Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...
    
     into a critical type of neuron
    Neuron
    A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
    
     that dies early in Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
    
     and is a major cause of memory loss; the discovery may have major implications in the treatment of the disease. (Machines Like Us)
  • A groundbreaking study of mice
    MICE
    -Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
    
     indicates the liver
    Liver
    The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
    
    , not the brain
    Brain
    The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
    
    , could be the source of amyloid
    Amyloid
    Amyloids are insoluble fibrous protein aggregates sharing specific structural traits. Abnormal accumulation of amyloid in organs may lead to amyloidosis, and may play a role in various neurodegenerative diseases.-Definition:...
    
     brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
    
    . (EurekAlert)
• 8 March – The world's first tissue-engineered
  Tissue engineering
  Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions...
  
   urethra
  Urethra
  In anatomy, the urethra is a tube that connects the urinary bladder to the genitals for the removal of fluids out of the body. In males, the urethra travels through the penis, and carries semen as well as urine...
  
  s are successfully used. (BBC)
• 14 March – Archeologists believe that they have found the lost city of Atlantis
  Atlantis
  Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
  
   in mud swamps near Cadiz, Spain. They theorize that a tsunami
  Tsunami
  A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
  
   struck the ancient settlement; a television special on the National Geographic Channel
  National Geographic Channel
  National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
  
   later investigates their findings. (MSNBC) (FOX News)
• 16 March – Scientists report the first successful use of microcarrier
  Microcarrier
  A microcarrier is a support matrix allowing for the growth of adherent cells in bioreactors.In 1967, microcarrier development began when van Wezel found that microcarriers could support the growth of anchorage-dependent cells.[1] Microcarriers are typically 125 - 250 micrometre spheres and their...
  
  s to bring anti-cancer
  Cancer
  Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
  
   drugs to the targeted area in the liver
  Liver
  The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
  
   of a living rabbit. (EurekAlert)
• 18 March – NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
  's MESSENGER
  MESSENGER
  The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury...
  
   spacecraft successfully enters orbit around the planet Mercury
  Mercury (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...
  
  – the first probe to do so. (BBC)
• 20 March
  • A new way of delivering drugs to the brain, using the body's own exosome
    Exosome (vesicle)
    Exosomes are 30-90 nm vesicles secreted by a wide range of mammalian cell types. First discovered in maturing mammalian reticulocytes, they were shown to be a mechanism for selective removal of many plasma membrane proteins. These proteins are lost or reduced in amount, without concomitant...
    
    s, is developed by scientists, overcoming a major barrier to the delivery of potential new drugs for many neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's
    Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
    
    . (BBC)
  • Researchers announce the development of a three-dimensional nanostructure for battery cathodes that allows for dramatically faster charging, without sacrificing energy storage capacity. This could lead to cellphones that charge in seconds, and electric cars that charge in minutes. (EurekAlert)
  • A new way of making battery electrodes, based on nanostructured metal foams, can be used to make a lithium-ion battery that recharge by 90% in under two minutes. (TechReview)
  • Scientists demonstrate how SHANK3
    SHANK3
    SH3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domains 3, also known as SHANK3, is a human gene on chromosome 22.This gene is a member of the Shank gene family. Shank proteins are multidomain scaffold proteins of the postsynaptic density that connect neurotransmitter receptors, ion channels, and other membrane...
    
    , a brain protein
    Protein
    Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
    
    , may trigger autism
    Autism
    Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
    
    -like behavior in mice
    MICE
    -Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
    
     by stopping effective communication between brain cells. (BBC)
• 22 March – A 6 cm-by-6 cm chip holding nine quantum devices, among them four "quantum bits", is demonstrated at the American Physical Society
  American Physical Society
  The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
  
   meeting in Dallas, Texas
  Texas
  Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
  
  . It is hoped that further scaling up to 10 qubits should be possible later this year. (BBC) (American Physical Society)
• 24 March
  • A landmark study indicates that pioglitazone
    Pioglitazone
    Pioglitazone is a prescription drug of the class thiazolidinedione with hypoglycemic action.Pioglitazone is marketed as trademarks Actos in the USA, Canada, the UK and Germany, Glustin in Europe,"Glizone" and "Pioz" in India by Zydus CND and USV respectively and Zactos in Mexico by Takeda...
    
     prevents the development of type 2 diabetes in 72% of pre-diabetic subject participants, the largest such decrease yet demonstrated by any intervention. (Daily Tech)
  • The first sperm cells are grown in a lab. (The Independent)
• 25 March – British and French scientists announce a plan to drill into the Earth's mantle
  Mantle (geology)
  The mantle is a part of a terrestrial planet or other rocky body large enough to have differentiation by density. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core....
  
  , a feat never before accomplished. (PhysOrg)
• 27 March – Harvard University
  Harvard University
  Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
  
   scientists demonstrate use of an electric field to extinguish an open flame more than 1 foot tall, a development they say could yield fire-suppression alternatives to water and chemical retardants. (CNN) (EurekAlert) (American Chemical Society)
• 30 March – Scientists design robot
  Robot
  A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
  
  s able to hit a ball to and fro while hovering in the air. (Daily Mail)
• 31 March – Scientists announce the successful controlled entanglement
  Quantum entanglement
  Quantum entanglement occurs when electrons, molecules even as large as "buckyballs", photons, etc., interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description , which is...
  
   of 14 quantum bits (qubits), realizing the largest quantum register yet produced—nearly double the previous record for the number of entangled quantum bits realized. (ZDnet)

April

• 4 April
  • A human heart
    Heart
    The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
    
     is grown in a laboratory from stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s, marking a major advance in personalized medicine
    Personalized medicine
    Personalized medicine is a medical model emphasizing in general the customization of healthcare, with all decisions and practices being tailored to individual patients in whatever ways possible...
    
    . (Daily Mail)
  • Five more gene
    Gene
    A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
    
    s which increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's have been identified, taking the number of genes linked to the disease to 10. (BBC)
  • A meta-study indicates that people with autism
    Autism
    Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
    
     process visual information differently to neurotypical
    Neurotypical
    Neurotypical is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to...
    
     people. (CBC) (Medical News Today)
  • A particle accelerator
    Particle accelerator
    A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
    
     in the United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
    
     shows compelling hints of a never-before-seen particle – researchers say it could be "the most significant discovery in physics in half a century". (PopSci) (BBC) (arXiv)
• 5 April
  • Scientists develop a novel approach to inhibiting angiogenesis
    Angiogenesis
    Angiogenesis is the physiological process involving the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. Though there has been some debate over terminology, vasculogenesis is the term used for spontaneous blood-vessel formation, and intussusception is the term for the formation of new blood...
    
     for cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
    
     treatment. (PhysOrg)
  • The Russian Federal Space Agency
    Russian Federal Space Agency
    The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located...
    
     announces a joint plan with NASA
    NASA
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
    
     to develop a future nuclear-powered rocket. (Fast Company)
• 6 April – Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  ese scientists announce that they have created working retina
  Retina
  The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
  
  s from mouse stem cells. (BBC)
• 7 April – Political views are determined to some extent by differences in brain structure, according to a report published in Current Biology
  Current Biology
  Current Biology is a scientific journal that covers all areas of biology, especially molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology and evolutionary biology. The journal is published twice a month and includes peer-reviewed research articles, various types of review articles, as...
  
  . (PhysOrg)
• 12 April
  • According to a controversial study, the aging process can be reduced by increasing telomere
    Telomere
    A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos "end" and merοs "part"...
    
     lengths without cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
    
     risk. (The Daily Beast)
  • Scientists produce the first comprehensive analysis of the greenhouse gas
    Greenhouse gas
    A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
    
     footprint of shale gas
    Shale gas
    Shale gas is natural gas produced from shale. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in the rest of the world...
    
    , concluding that its environmental impact is worse than coal
    Coal
    Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
    
    . (BBC)
• 13 April – Cellphones may be contributing to a global decline in honeybee populations, according to researchers. (Toronto Star) (PhysOrg)
• 14 April
  • More than 1,000 UK patients with advanced pancreatic cancer
    Pancreatic cancer
    Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
    
     have joined a trial using a new vaccine
    Vaccine
    A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
    
     to treat the disease. (BBC)
  • Shrinkage in parts of the brain of some Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
    
     sufferers can be detected up to a decade before symptoms appear. (BBC)
• 15 April
  • The world's first human brain map is unveiled, providing an interactive research tool that will help scientists to understand how the brain works. The map is hoped to aid new discoveries in disease and treatments; one thousand anatomical sites in the brain can be searched, supported by more than 100 million data points that indicate the gene expression
    Gene expression
    Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product. These products are often proteins, but in non-protein coding genes such as ribosomal RNA , transfer RNA or small nuclear RNA genes, the product is a functional RNA...
    
     and biochemistry
    Biochemistry
    Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
    
     of each site. (New Scientist)
  • Scientists have teleported
    Quantum teleportation
    Quantum teleportation, or entanglement-assisted teleportation, is a process by which a qubit can be transmitted exactly from one location to another, without the qubit being transmitted through the intervening space...
    
     wave packets of light by destroying them in one location and re-creating them in another. (PhysOrg)
• 17 April – Researchers have injected biodegradable nanofiber spheres carrying cells into wounds to grow tissue. (PhysOrg)
• 18 April
  • Scientists demonstrate mathematically that asymmetrical materials should be possible; such material would allow most light or sound waves through in one direction, while preventing them from doing so in the opposite direction; such materials would allow the construction of true one-way mirrors, soundproof rooms, or even quantum computers that use light to perform calculations. (PhysOrg)
  • A new design for thin-film solar cell
    Solar cell
    A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
    
    s has been developed that requires significantly less silicon
    Silicon
    Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
    
     than standard models, and may be more efficient at capturing solar energy. (PhysOrg)
• April 19 – An international research team publishes a new method to produce belts of graphene
  Graphene
  Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...
  
  , called nanoribbons. By using hydrogen, they have managed to transform single-walled carbon nanotubes into ribbons.(Science Daily)
• 20 April – Scientists describe a Chinese spider they say is the biggest fossilised arachnid
  Arachnid
  Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, although in some species the front pair may convert to a sensory function. The term is derived from the Greek words , meaning "spider".Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial...
  
   yet found; Nephila jurassica, as they have called their specimen, would have had a leg span of some 15 cm. (BBC)
• 21 April
  • Scientists successfully cause a modified anti-malaria
    Malaria
    Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
    
     gene
    Gene
    A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
    
     to spread amongst a population of mosquitoes. (BBC)
  • Researchers have built a carbon nanotube
    Carbon nanotube
    Carbon nanotubes are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, significantly larger than for any other material...
    
     synapse
    Synapse
    In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell...
    
     circuit whose behavior in tests reproduces the function of a neuron
    Neuron
    A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
    
    , the building block of the human brain
    Brain
    The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
    
    . (EurekAlert)
  • Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
    
    i engineers have built an artificial device capable of detecting cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
    
    s of the head and neck by analysing breath. (Medical Xpress)
• 22 April – Gene transcription is observed in real time in a live cell. (U.S. News and World Repor) (Techno-science.net)
• 24 April – Small laser
  Laser
  A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
  
  s capable of igniting a fuel/air mixture more efficiently, resulting in less pollution, may replace spark plug
  Spark plug
  A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...
  
  s in gasoline
  Gasoline
  Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
  
   engines. (BBC) (CLEO)
• 25 April
  • Some microbes can survive gravity more than 400,000 times that felt on Earth, a new study says. By contrast, most humans can tolerate three to five times Earth's surface gravity before losing consciousness. (National Geographic)
  • The European Commission
    European Commission
    The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
    
     has approved plans to build a trio of lasers that will each dwarf the power of any previous laser. The project, called the Extreme Light Infrastructure
    Extreme Light Infrastructure
    The Extreme Light Infrastructure is a proposed high energy laser research facility of the European Union. The facility will host an exawatt-class laser, that will enable scientists, through relativistic compression, to produce intensities of 1023 W/cm2...
    
    , will lay the groundwork for building an even more powerful laser that could try to pull "virtual" particles out of the vacuum of space-time. (New Scientist)
• 28 April
  • Researchers publish findings of three more gene
    Gene
    A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
    
    s linked to the most common form of breast cancer
    Breast cancer
    Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
    
    , which could provide targets for new treatments. (Daily Telegraph)
  • According to an American Physical Society
    American Physical Society
    The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
    
     report, technologies for removing carbon dioxide
    Carbon dioxide
    Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
    
     from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change
    Climate change
    Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
    
     for several decades. (Science Daily) (New York Times) (APS)

May

• 1 May
  • Researchers successfully store a qubit
    Qubit
    In quantum computing, a qubit or quantum bit is a unit of quantum information—the quantum analogue of the classical bit—with additional dimensions associated to the quantum properties of a physical atom....
    
     in a single atom
    Atom
    The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
    
     by writing the quantum state of single photon
    Photon
    In physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...
    
    s into a rubidium
    Rubidium
    Rubidium is a chemical element with the symbol Rb and atomic number 37. Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali metal group. Its atomic mass is 85.4678. Elemental rubidium is highly reactive, with properties similar to those of other elements in group 1, such as very rapid...
    
     atom and reading it out again later. (PhysOrg)
  • A Detroit entrepreneur has invented a heat-treatment that makes steel
    Steel
    Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
    
     7 percent stronger than any steel on record in less than 10 seconds. (PhysOrg)
• 3 May
  • Middle-aged people who are overweight but not obese are 71% more likely to develop dementia
    Dementia
    Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...
    
     than those with a normal weight, according to new research; links between obesity and dementia had previously been found. (BBC)
  • Scientists have used nanoscale capsules to release an immune system
    Immune system
    An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
    
    -stimulating protein
    Protein
    Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
    
     directly into lung cancer
    Lung cancer
    Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
    
     tumors. (PhysOrg)
  • Australia
    Australia
    Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
    
    n researchers say they are a step closer to finding a vaccine
    Vaccine
    A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
    
     for HIV
    HIV
    Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
    
    , and hope to be able to offer a preventative jab by 2020. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• 4 May
  • Yukon
    Yukon
    Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
    
     fossils may represent the first early traces of biomineralization in eukaryote
    Eukaryote
    A eukaryote is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. Eukaryotes may more formally be referred to as the taxon Eukarya or Eukaryota. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus, or nuclear...
    
    s. (Wired)
  • Experimental data gathered by the Gravity Probe B
    Gravity Probe B
    Gravity Probe B is a satellite-based mission which launched on 20 April 2004 on a Delta II rocket. The spaceflight phase lasted until 2005; its aim was to measure spacetime curvature near Earth, and thereby the stress–energy tensor in and near Earth...
    
     satellite confirms two aspects of the general theory of relativity, which was published by Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
    
     in 1916. (BBC) (arXiv)
  • CERN
    CERN
    The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
    
     scientists have confined antihydrogen
    Antihydrogen
    Antihydrogen is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. Whereas the common hydrogen atom is composed of an electron and proton, the antihydrogen atom is made up of a positron and antiproton...
    
     atoms for 1,000 seconds, four orders of magnitude longer than has ever been achieved before in capturing and maintaining antimatter
    Antimatter
    In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
    
     atoms. (PhysOrg) (arXiv)
  • Intel unveils its next generation of microprocessor
    Microprocessor
    A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
    
     technology, codenamed Ivy Bridge. The upcoming chips will be the first to use a 22 nanometre manufacturing process
    22 nanometer
    The 22 nanometer node is the CMOS process step following 32 nm. It was introduced by semiconductor companies in 2011. The typical half-pitch for a memory cell is around 22 nm...
    
    , which packs transistors more densely than the current 32nm system, providing greater efficiency. (BBC) (Intel)
• 6 May
  • A new study suggests that the drop in production of neurons in old age
    Old age
    Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
    
     is due to the shrinking cache of adult stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s in our brains. (Times of India)
  • A machine used for measuring impurities in semiconductors can be used to analyze immune cells in far more detail than has been previously possible, researchers from Stanford University
    Stanford University
    The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
    
     have shown. (Science Daily) (Chemistry World)
  • Researchers have identified a group of mitochondrial protein
    Protein
    Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
    
    s, the absence of which allows other protein groups to stabilise the genome
    Genome
    In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
    
    . This could delay the onset of age-related diseases and increase lifespan. (Science Daily) (Economic Times)
• 9 May – Smog
  Smog
  Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
  
  -eating aluminium
  Aluminium
  Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
  
   panels which clean themselves and the air around them are unveiled; their titanium dioxide
  Titanium dioxide
  Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6, or CI 77891. Generally it comes in two different forms, rutile and anatase. It has a wide range of...
  
   coating, when combined with sunlight, acts as a catalyst to break down pollutants into harmless matter that rain
  Rain
  Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
  
   washes away. (Alcoa) (USA Today) (Forbes via MSNBC)
• 11 May
  • A new phylum
    Phylum
    In biology, a phylum The term was coined by Georges Cuvier from Greek φῦλον phylon, "race, stock," related to φυλή phyle, "tribe, clan." is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. "Phylum" is equivalent to the botanical term division....
    
     of fungi is announced, and named cryptomycota ("hidden fungi"). (BBC) (EurekAlert)
  • A new vaccine can protect macaques against the monkey equivalent of HIV
    HIV
    Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
    
    , and could provide a fresh approach to an HIV vaccine, a study suggests. (BBC)
  • D-Wave Systems
    D-Wave Systems
    D-Wave Systems, Inc. is a quantum computing company, based in Burnaby, British Columbia. On May 11, 2011, D-Wave System announced D-Wave One, labeled "the world's first commercially available quantum computer," and also referred to it as an adiabatic quantum computer using quantum annealing to...
    
    , after some 12 years of research, the accumulation of 60 patents, and the filing of 100 more, has released the world's first commercial quantum computer
    Quantum computer
    A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from traditional computers based on transistors...
    
    , priced at $10 million. (Forbes) (ExtremeTech) (D-Wave)
• 12 May – The exoplanet Gliese 581d can be considered the first confirmed exoplanet that could potentially support Earth-like life, according to a team of French scientists. (Science Daily)
• 13 May
  • New results from mice
    MICE
    -Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
    
     cast doubts on hopes for self-transplants
    Organ transplant
    Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
    
     generated from the receiver's stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s, as such transplants can be rejected by the immune system. (New Scientist)
  • According to new research, a small set of genes located within the mitochondria of cells is crucial to unravelling the secrets of male infertility
    Male infertility
    Male infertility refers to the inability of a male to achieve a pregnancy in a fertile female. In humans it accounts for 40-50% of infertility. Male infertility is commonly due to deficiencies in the semen, and semen quality is used as a surrogate measure of male fecundity.-Pre-testicular...
    
    . (Medical Xpress)
  • The discovery of a new physical phenomenon could yield transistor
    Transistor
    A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
    
    s with greatly enhanced capacitance
    Capacitance
    In electromagnetism and electronics, capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store energy in an electric field. Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric potential energy stored for a given electric potential. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor...
    
     – a measure of the voltage required to move a charge. This, in turn, could lead to the revival of clock speed as the measure of a computer’s power. (PhysOrg)
  • Contaminated water can be cleaned much more effectively using a novel, cheap material, which could offer a low-cost way to purify water in the developing world. (BBC)
• 15 May – Researchers have found that KLF14
  KLF14
  Krüppel-like factor 14, also known as basic transcription element-binding protein 5 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KLF14 gene. The corresponding Klf14 mouse gene is known as Sp6.- Function :...
  
  , a gene linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol
  Cholesterol
  Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...
  
   levels, is in fact a 'master regulator' gene, which controls the behaviour of other genes found within fat
  Adipose tissue
  In histology, adipose tissue or body fat or fat depot or just fat is loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes. It is technically composed of roughly only 80% fat; fat in its solitary state exists in the liver and muscles. Adipose tissue is derived from lipoblasts...
  
   in the body. (Medical Xpress)
• 16 May – NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
  's Space Shuttle Endeavour
  Space Shuttle Endeavour
  Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...
  
   launches on its final mission. (BBC)
• 18 May
  • Scientists have achieved optical invisibility in the visible light range of the spectrum
    Spectrum
    A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...
    
    . (Science Daily)
  • Japan
    Japan
    Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
    
    ese developers have unveiled an electric car
    Electric car
    An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
    
     that can travel more than 300 kilometres on a single battery charge. (PhysOrg)
  • Rogue planet
    Rogue Planet
    - Literature :* "Rogue Planet" , a Dan Dare story that ran in the original Eagle comic from Volume 6, Issue 48 to Volume 8, Issue 7* Rogue Planet , a 2000 novel set in the Star Wars galaxy- Other :...
    
    s lacking parent stars may outnumber "normal" exoplanets by at least 50 percent, and are nearly twice as common in our galaxy as main-sequence stars, according to a new study. (Space.com) (arXiv)
• 19 May
  • By using electrical stimulation of the spinal cord
    Spinal cord
    The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
    
    , a man from Oregon
    Oregon
    Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
    
     who became paralyzed after being hit by a car can stand and move his legs on his own. (BBC)
  • Scientists have developed an open-source desktop genome
    Genome
    In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
    
     analyzer. It works in conjunction with a browser that allows biologists to rapidly and easily analyze and process their high-throughput information. (TG Daily)
• 20 May – A highly developed sense of smell kick-started the evolution of mammals' big brains, according to new research. (BBC)
• 23 May
  • Researchers have set a new record for the rate of data transfer using a single laser
    Laser
    A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
    
    : 26 terabit
    Terabit
    The terabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix tera is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 1012 , and therefore...
    
    s per second. (BBC)
  • The bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers have been linked to Parkinson's disease
    Parkinson's disease
    Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
    
    , according to American researchers. (BBC) (ASM)
• 24 May – A superhot substance recently made in the Large Hadron Collider
  Large Hadron Collider
  The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
  
   is the densest form of matter ever observed, scientists have announced. (National Geographic)
• 25 May
  • Reexamination of data indicates that the gamma-ray burst GRB 090423
    GRB 090423
    GRB 090423 is a gamma-ray burst detected by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on April 23, 2009 at 07:55:19 UTC. The afterglow of GRB 090423 was detected in the infrared, and allowed astronomers to determine that the redshift of GRB 090423 is z = 8.2, which makes GRB 090423 the second...
    
     may be the most distant single object yet detected; scientists believe the blast, which was detected by NASA's Swift Observatory, occurred a mere 520 million years after the Big Bang
    Big Bang
    The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
    
    . (BBC) (PhysOrg) (arXiv)
  • NASA ends its operational planning activities for the veteran Mars rover
    Mars Rover
    A Mars rover is an automated motor vehicle which propels itself across the surface of the planet Mars after landing.Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to...
    
     Spirit
    Spirit rover
    Spirit, MER-A , is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity , landed on the other side of the planet...
    
    ; it will now transition the Mars Exploration Rover Project
    Mars Exploration Rover
    NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...
    
     to a single-rover operation focused on Spirit's still-active twin, Opportunity
    Opportunity rover
    Opportunity, MER-B , is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004. It is the remaining rover in NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission...
    
    . (Los Angeles Times) (NASA)
  • Swedish scientists unveil a technique that causes the brain to misinterpret the size of the human body. (Science Daily) (MSNBC)
• 26 May
  • Stanford University researchers have managed to turn human skin cells directly into neuron
    Neuron
    A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
    
    s, without first turning them into pluripotent stem cells. (Physorg) (Discover)
  • Researchers believe they have made the first experimental observation of the dynamical Casimir effect
    Casimir effect
    In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect and the Casimir–Polder force are physical forces arising from a quantized field. The typical example is of two uncharged metallic plates in a vacuum, like capacitors placed a few micrometers apart, without any external electromagnetic field...
    
    , using a rapidly moving mirror that turns virtual photon
    Photon
    In physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...
    
    s into real ones. (Technology Review) (arXiv)
• 29 May – Human organs could be grown inside pigs
  PIGS
  PIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS , Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene* PIGS , the economies of Portugal, Italy , Greece and Spain...
  
   for use in transplant operations, following research using stem cell
  Stem cell
  This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
  
  s. (The Telegraph) (EHGC 2001)
• 31 May
  • A team of Chinese
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
    
     physicists successfully entangles
    Quantum entanglement
    Quantum entanglement occurs when electrons, molecules even as large as "buckyballs", photons, etc., interact physically and then become separated; the type of interaction is such that each resulting member of a pair is properly described by the same quantum mechanical description , which is...
    
     eight photon
    Photon
    In physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...
    
    s simultaneously and observes them in action; the previous record was six. (PhysOrg) (arXiv)
  • Researchers have demonstrated the first true nanoscale waveguides for next generation on-chip optical communication systems; this holds potential for nanoscale photonic applications such as intra-chip optical communication, signal modulation, nanoscale lasers and bio-medical sensing. (Science Daily)
  • A NASA-led research team unveils the most precise map ever produced of the carbon
    Carbon
    Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
    
     stored in Earth's tropical forests; the data is expected to provide a baseline for ongoing carbon monitoring and research. (Science Daily)

June

• 1 June
  • Elements 114 and 116 are officially added to the periodic table
    Periodic table
    The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
    
    , becoming its heaviest members yet. (New Scientist) (IUPAC)
  • Scientists have discovered a worm that is the deepest-living animal known to science, surviving in 48-degree-Celsius
    Celsius
    Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
    
     (118 Fahrenheit
    Fahrenheit
    Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
    
    ) water at depths of 1.3 kilometre (0.807784557644749 mi). (BBC)
• 2 June – A team of students at the University of California
  University of California
  The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
  
   is developing a first-of-its kind, phase-change memory solid-state storage device that provides performance thousands of times faster than a conventional hard drive, and up to seven times faster than current state-of-the-art solid-state drives. (Jacobs School of Engineering)
• 3 June
  • Researchers have bent one of the most basic rules of quantum mechanics
    Quantum mechanics
    Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
    
     by succeeding in observing light behaving as both a wave and a particle. (BBC)
  • Six men in the MARS-500
    MARS-500
    Mars-500 was an international multi-part isolation experiment simulating a manned flight to Mars. The experiment's facility was located at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. A total of 640 experiment days were scheduled between 2007 and 2011,...
    
     facility near Moscow have now been in isolation for exactly 365 days, simulating a manned mission to Mars
    Mars
    Mars 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...
    
    . (New Scientist) (ESA)
  • About one in 10 rocky planets around stars like the Sun
    Sun
    The 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...
    
     may host a moon
    Natural satellite
    A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called its primary. The two terms are used synonymously for non-artificial satellites of planets, of dwarf planets, and of minor planets....
    
     proportionally as large as Earth's
    Moon
    The 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...
    
    . (BBC) (arXiv)
• 6 June – A team of Virginia Commonwealth University
  Virginia Commonwealth University
  Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
  
   scientists has discovered a new class of 'superatoms' – a stable cluster of atom
  Atom
  The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
  
  s that can mimic different elements of the periodic table – with unusual magnetic characteristics. (Science Daily)
• 7 June – Fragranced clothing, triggered by scent molecules that are stable in the dark and only release their aroma when exposed to light, has been described in a thesis written by scientist Dr. Olga Hinze of Cologne University. (Henkel)
• 8 June – China's carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
  
   emissions rose 10.4 percent in 2010 compared with the previous year, as global emissions rose at their fastest rate for more than four decades, according to data released by BP
  BP
  BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
  
  . (Reuters) (BP)
• 9 June
  • Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in anti-bacteria
    Bacteria
    Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
    
    l science, identifying natural ingredients capable of eradicating bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. (TNO)
  • Type 2 diabetes, previously regarded as inevitably progressive, is successfully reversed in a group of newly-diagnosed patients by an extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day. (BBC)
• 10 June
  • Cross-checks on data that hinted at the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle have failed to find support for the observation. (BBC) (arXiv)
  • US scientists publish data about how nicotine
    Nicotine
    Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
    
     acts as an appetite suppressant, a finding that could help in fighting obesity. (Sunday Morning Herald)
• 12 June – The Nabro Volcano
  Nabro Volcano
  The Nabro Volcano is a stratovolcano located in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is located in the Danakil Depression. Prior to its 2011 eruption it was widely believed to be extinct.-Geology:...
  
   begins to erupt, releasing the highest quantity of sulfur dioxide
  Sulfur dioxide
  Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
  
   ever observed by satellite. (Earthquake-Report.com)
• 13 June – A study suggests that protostars
  Protostars
  Protostars is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by David Gerrold and Stephen Goldin. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in October 1971, and has been reprinted a number of times since....
  
   may be seeding the universe with water. These stellar embryos shoot jets of material from their north and south poles as their growth is fed by infalling dust, which circles the bodies in vast disks. (National Geographic)
• 14 June
  • Ten new planets outside our Solar System have been spotted by the French-led COROT
    Corot
    Corot may refer to:* Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French landscape painter * COROT, a space mission with the dual aims of finding extrasolar planets and performing asteroseismology* COROT-7, a dwarf star in the Monoceros constellation...
    
     satellite, bringing the total number of known exoplanets to 561. (BBC)
  • A Japanese experiment sees hints that neutrino
    Neutrino
    A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
    
     particles can oscillate between all three types, opening new lines of research to test why matter became more prevalent than antimatter
    Antimatter
    In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
    
     in the Big Bang
    Big Bang
    The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
    
    . (BBC) (arXiv)
• 15 June – A central lunar eclipse
  June 2011 lunar eclipse
  A total lunar eclipse took place on June 15, 2011. It was the first of two such eclipses in 2011. The second will occur on December 10, 2011.This was a relatively rare central lunar eclipse, in which the center point of Earth's shadow passes across the Moon. The last time a lunar eclipse was closer...
  
   takes place, with a totality of 1 hour and 40 minutes.
• 16 June – Researchers have developed a scalable approach to fabricating high-speed graphene
  Graphene
  Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...
  
   transistors. (Science Daily)
• 17 June
  • The United States Department of Energy
    United States Department of Energy
    The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
    
     reports that it will invest $150 million in a private company that has developed a silicon
    Silicon
    Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
    
    -wafer solar cell
    Solar cell
    A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
    
     that can be manufactured twice as cheaply as standard solar cells. (Huffington Post)
  • Thousands of insects are being lined up to have their genome
    Genome
    In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
    
    s sequenced. The five-year project will help researchers pinpoint vulnerable regions of insects' genomes, which could be targeted with pesticide
    Pesticide
    Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
    
    s. (BBC)
  • Scientists have developed a nano-device that powers itself by harvesting energy from vibrations, while at the same time transmitting data wirelessly with a range of up to 10 metres (32.8 ft). (PopSci)
• 19 June
  • Researchers have used a human vaccine to cure prostate cancer
    Prostate cancer
    Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
    
     in mice. (Medical Xpress)
  • The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, with a mass extinction of marine species looming, according to a new report. (BBC) (IPSO)
• 20 June – A Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  ese computer has taken first place on the Top 500 supercomputer list, ending China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
  's reign at the top after just six months. Capable of operating at 8.16 petaflops (quadrillion floating-point calculations per second), the K computer
  K computer
  The K computer – named for the Japanese word , which stands for 10 quadrillion – is a supercomputer being produced by Fujitsu at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science campus in Kobe, Japan. In June 2011, TOP500 ranked K the world's fastest supercomputer, with a rating...
  
   is more powerful than the next five systems combined. (ComputerWorld)
• 22 June
  • A newly developed multiferroic composite of nickel
    Nickel
    Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
    
    , cobalt
    Cobalt
    Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
    
    , manganese
    Manganese
    Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
    
     and tin
    Tin
    Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
    
     can be either non-magnetic or highly magnetic, depending on its temperature, making it capable of converting heat into electricity. (PopSci)
  • The brains of people living in cities operate differently from those in rural areas, according to a brain-scanning study. (The Guardian)
  • Scientists demonstrate an acoustic "cloaking device
    Cloaking device
    Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
    
    " that makes objects invisible to sound waves; such acoustic cloaking was proposed theoretically in 2008
    2008 in science
    The year 2008 in science and technology involved some significant events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.-Events and discoveries:...
    
    , but has only this year been put into practice. (BBC)
  • Stanford University
    Stanford University
    The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
    
     researchers have developed a new method of attaching nanowire
    Nanowire
    A nanowire is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometer . Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. At these scales, quantum mechanical effects are important —...
    
     electronics to the surface of virtually any object, regardless of its shape or composition. The method could be used in making everything from wearable electronics and flexible computer displays to high-efficiency solar cell
    Solar cell
    A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
    
    s and ultrasensitive biosensors. (PhysOrg)
• 23 June – Single-celled yeast
  Yeast
  Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
  
   has been observed to evolve into a multicellular organism, complete with division of labour between cells. This suggests that the evolutionary leap to multicellularity may be a surprisingly small hurdle.(New Scientist) (Evolution 2011)
• 24 June
  • A tiny biological fuel cell
    Fuel cell
    A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...
    
     powered by bacteria
    Bacteria
    Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
    
    , with a capacity of just 0.3 microliters, has been built by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University
    Carnegie Mellon University
    Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
    
     (CMU). The new device, the size of a single strand of human hair, generates energy from the metabolism of bacteria on thin gold
    Gold
    Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
    
     plates in micro-manufactured channels. (Engadget)
  • Biologists publish the explanation for yeast
    Yeast
    Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
    
     cells reversing aging. (PhysOrg)
• 25 June – Stanford researchers have developed a microphone that can be used at any depth in the ocean, even under crushing pressure, and is sensitive to a wide range of sounds, from a whisper in a library to an explosion of TNT. They modeled their device after the extraordinarily acute hearing of orcas. (Science Daily)
• 26 June – A new gene-editing technique provides the first published successful healing of a genetic condition in a live animal, by curing mice of haemophilia B
  Haemophilia B
  Haemophilia B is a blood clotting disorder caused by a mutation of the Factor IX gene, leading to a deficiency of Factor IX. It is the second most common form of haemophilia, rarer than haemophilia A. It is sometimes called Christmas disease after Stephen Christmas, the first patient described...
  
  . (The Guardian) (Nature News)
• 27 June – A new bacterium is reported to have been produced from an engineered DNA
  DNA
  Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
  
   sequence, in which thymine
  Thymine
  Thymine is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine is also known as 5-methyluracil, a pyrimidine nucleobase. As the name suggests, thymine may be derived by methylation of uracil at...
  
   was replaced by the synthetic building block 5-chlorouracil – a substance "toxic to other organisms".
• 28 June – The United Nations holds a ceremony in Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  , declaring the once-widespread cattle disease rinderpest
  Rinderpest
  Rinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001...
  
   to be globally eradicated.
• 30 June – Computer corporation IBM
  IBM
  International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
  
   develops a form of 'instantaneous' memory, 100 times faster than flash memory
  Flash memory
  Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
  
  . (engadget)

July

• 1 July – Based on results from the Tevatron particle accelerator
  Tevatron
  The Tevatron is a circular particle accelerator in the United States, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , just east of Batavia, Illinois, and is the second highest energy particle collider in the world after the Large Hadron Collider...
  
  , scientists have reported stronger evidence that a small excess of matter over antimatter
  Antimatter
  In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
  
   was present during the Big Bang
  Big Bang
  The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
  
   as particles decayed. (BBC)
• 3 July
  • China's monopoly over rare-earth metals could be challenged by the discovery of massive deposits of these widely-used minerals on the floor of the Pacific Ocean
    Pacific Ocean
    The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
    
    , a new study suggests. (PhysOrg)
  • Warming oceans will melt glacier
    Glacier
    A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
    
    s quicker than expected, according to a new study. As oceans heat up, they could erode ice sheets much faster than warmer air alone. (LiveScience)
• 7 July
  • Surgeons in Sweden
    Sweden
    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
    
     have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant
    Organ transplant
    Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
    
    , using an artificial windpipe coated in stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s. (BBC)
  • Global investment in renewable energy sources
    Renewable energy
    Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
    
     grew by 32% during 2010 to reach a record level of US$211 billion, according to a UN study. Reportedly, the main drivers of investment growth were wind farm
    Wind farm
    A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
    
    s in China and rooftop solar panels in Europe. (BBC)
  • The molecular basis for the breakage of DNA
    DNA
    Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
    
    , an important process in the development of cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
    
    , has been identified by Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
    
     scientists. (The Jerusalem Post)
• 9 July – Researchers have reprogrammed brain cells to become heart
  Heart
  The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
  
   cells. (Science Daily)
• 10 July – An international team of scientists based in Scotland
  Scotland
  Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
  
   have decoded the full DNA
  DNA
  Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
  
   sequence of the potato
  Potato
  The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
  
  , one of the world's most important staple crops, for the first time. (BBC)
• 12 July
  • A computer has learned language by playing strategy game
    Strategy game
    A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
    
    s, inferring the meaning of words without human supervision. (MIT News)
  • Researchers at the University of Cambridge
    University of Cambridge
    The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
    
     have identified a part of the brain associated with empathy
    Empathy
    Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
    
     which may be a 'biomarker' for a familial risk of autism
    Autism
    Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
    
    . (Science Daily)
• 13 July – A string of a dozen underwater volcanoes, several of them active, has been found near Antarctica, the first such discovery in that region. (Yahoo!)
• 14 July
  • A "fountain of youth" that sustains the production of new neuron
    Neuron
    A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
    
    s in the brains of rodents may also be present in the human brain, researchers have found. (KurzweilAI)
  • Technicians from Kagawa University
    Kagawa University
    is a national university in Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. The university was established in 1949 as a national university after the consolidation and reorganization of the Kagawa Normal School, the Kagawa Normal School for Youth and the Takamatsu College of Economics .- Faculties :Faculty of...
    
     have developed a robotic, bionic mouth
    Mouth
    The mouth is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food andsaliva. The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium lining the inside of the mouth....
    
     that can sing. The design replicates almost all the human organs that are required for singing. (CrazyEngineers)
• 16 July
  • NASA
    NASA
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
    
    's Dawn probe enters orbit around the asteroid Vesta
    4 Vesta
    Vesta, formally designated 4 Vesta, is one of the largest asteroids, with a mean diameter of about . It was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807, and is named after the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth, Vesta....
    
    . (BBC)
  • Japan
    Japan
    Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
    
    ese company Sumitomo Electric Industries
    Sumitomo Electric Industries
    is a major manufacturer of electric wire and optical fiber cables. It holds the lead in market share for electric cables within Japan. Its headquarters are in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The company's shares are listed in the first section of the Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya Stock Exchanges, and the Fukuoka...
    
     develops a new material which they believe can improve the range of electric vehicles by 300%. (Inhabitat)
• 19 July
  • Russia
    Russia
    Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
    
    's RadioAstron
    RadioAstron
    Spektr-R is a Russian orbital radio telescope, and currently the largest space telescope in orbit. It is funded by the Russian Astro Space Center, and was launched into Earth orbit on 18 July 2011, with a perigee of and an apogee of , about 700 times of the orbital height of the Hubble Space...
    
    , the largest orbital radio telescope
    Radio telescope
    A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
    
     yet constructed, is successfully launched into Earth orbit. (BBC)
  • It is announced the Herschel Space Observatory
    Herschel Space Observatory
    The Herschel Space Observatory is a European Space Agency space observatory sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands. It is the largest space telescope ever launched, carrying a single mirror of in diameter....
    
     has discovered a dense ribbon of gas and dust more than 600 light years across at the centre of the Milky Way
    Milky Way
    The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
    
     galaxy. (Herschel)
• 20 July
  • The Hubble Space Telescope
    Hubble Space Telescope
    The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
    
     discovers another moon orbiting Pluto
    Pluto
    Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
    
    . (PhysOrg)
  • An experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has revealed a heavy relative of the neutron
    Neutron
    The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
    
    . (Interactions.org)
  • The world's most powerful "split magnet
    Magnet
    A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets.A permanent magnet is an object...
    
    " – one that is made in two halves with holes in the middle to observe experiments – has been built in the US. It operates at 25 Tesla
    Tesla (unit)
    The tesla is the SI derived unit of magnetic field B . One tesla is equal to one weber per square meter, and it was defined in 1960 in honour of the inventor, physicist, and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla...
    
    , equivalent to 500,000 times the strength of Earth's magnetic field. (BBC)
• 21 July
  • A 120-million-year-old fossil is the oldest pregnant lizard
    Lizard
    Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
    
     ever discovered, according to scientists. The fossil, found in China
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
    
    , is a very complete 30-cm (12-in)-long specimen with more than a dozen embryos in its body. (BBC)
  • Researchers at the University of Minnesota
    University of Minnesota
    The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
    
     have discovered a gene
    Gene
    A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
    
     required to maintain male gender throughout life. (Medical Xpress)
• 26 July
  • Using silicon lithography, liquid silicone
    Silicone
    Silicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
    
    , and electrodes that are fashioned into patterns invisible to the naked eye, researchers at Stanford University
    Stanford University
    The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
    
     have created transparent electric batteries
    Battery (electricity)
    An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
    
    . (Extreme Tech)
  • DNA
    DNA
    Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
    
     circuits have been used to make a neural network and to store memories. (Ars Technica)
• 27 July – Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  ese researchers have developed an electric vehicle
  Electric vehicle
  An electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, uses one or more electric motors or traction motors for propulsion...
  
   motor not reliant on rare-earth metals. (PhysOrg)
• 28 July – A Chinese
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
   fossil of a previously unknown bird
  Bird
  Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
  
  -like dinosaur is estimated by scientists to be about 155 million years old – five million years older than Archaeopteryx
  Archaeopteryx
  Archaeopteryx , sometimes referred to by its German name Urvogel , is a genus of theropod dinosaur that is closely related to birds. The name derives from the Ancient Greek meaning "ancient", and , meaning "feather" or "wing"...
  
  , which for 150 years has been assumed to be the world's earliest bird. (Daily Telegraph)
• 29 July – A major clinical trial will investigate whether stem cell
  Stem cell
  This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
  
  s can be safely used to stop or even reverse the damage caused by multiple sclerosis
  Multiple sclerosis
  Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
  
  . (BBC)

August

• 3 August – Researchers suggest that Earth
  Earth
  Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
  
   once had a small second Moon
  Moon
  The 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...
  
   that was destroyed in a slow-motion collision with the far side of its larger companion. (BBC)
• 4 August
  • New images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and Exploration of Mars from orbit...
    
     appear to show evidence of flowing, liquid water on Mars
    Mars
    Mars 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...
    
    . (BBC)
  • A ring of antiprotons has been detected around the Earth. (New Scientist) (Next Big Future)
  • Artificial sperm
    Sperm
    The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
    
     have been created using stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s for the first time in a scientific breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for infertile men. (Daily Telegraph)
• 5 August
  • The solar-powered probe Juno
    Juno (spacecraft)
    Juno is a NASA New Frontiers mission to the planet Jupiter. Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011. The spacecraft is to be placed in a polar orbit to study the planet's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere...
    
    is launched from Kennedy Space Center
    Kennedy Space Center
    The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
    
     on a five-year mission to Jupiter
    Jupiter
    Jupiter 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,...
    
    . (BBC)
  • Bypassing stem cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    s, scientists have made neurons directly from human skin
    Human skin
    The human skin is the outer covering of the body. In humans, it is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to that of most other mammals,...
    
    . (PhysOrg)
  • Scientists have developed a new class of molecules that target cells' entry systems to ensure harmful organisms do not gain access. The molecules, nicknamed pitstops
    Mojo Barrier
    Mojo Barriers are a type of temporary fencing commonly used at public events such as concerts and festivals. They are specifically used for separating the area open to the public from the stage. These barriers were developed in the 1980s by Dutch event organisor Mojo Concerts...
    
    , could lead to new therapeutic approaches to prevent the spread of viral and bacterial infections. (ABC Science)
• 6 August – A study postulates that the demise of the world's forests 250 million years ago
  Permian-Triassic extinction event
  The Permian–Triassic extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying, was an extinction event that occurred 252.28 Ma ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods, as well as the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras...
  
   was likely accelerated by aggressive tree-killing fungi, who flourished in conditions brought about by global climate change
  Climate change
  Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
  
  . (PhysOrg)
• 8 August – A report, based on NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
   analysis of meteorites found on Earth
  Earth
  Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
  
  , suggests that the building blocks of DNA
  DNA
  Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
  
   (adenine
  Adenine
  Adenine is a nucleobase with a variety of roles in biochemistry including cellular respiration, in the form of both the energy-rich adenosine triphosphate and the cofactors nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide , and protein synthesis, as a chemical component of DNA...
  
  , guanine
  Guanine
  Guanine is one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine . In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine. With the formula C5H5N5O, guanine is a derivative of purine, consisting of a fused pyrimidine-imidazole ring system with...
  
   and related organic molecules) may have been formed in outer space
  Outer space
  Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
  
  .
• 10 August – An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes a new therapy that has successfully neutralized advanced cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia
  Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
  B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia , also known as chronic lymphoid leukemia , is the most common type of leukemia. Leukemias are cancers of the white blood cells . CLL affects B cell lymphocytes. B cells originate in the bone marrow, develop in the lymph nodes, and normally fight infection by...
  
   (CLL) in 3 patients.
• 11 August
  • Researchers say they have created the first-ever animal with artificial information in its genetic code. The technique, they say, could give biologists "atom-by-atom control" over the molecules in living organisms. (BBC)
  • Arctic ice might be thinning four times faster than predicted by the IPCC
    IPCC
    IPCC may refer to:*Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the United Nations*Independent Police Complaints Commission, of England and Wales*Irish Peatland Conservation Council...
    
    , according to a new study by MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). (MIT)
  • Scientists have shown how an enzyme
    Enzyme
    Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
    
     from a microbe can quickly and cheaply produce hydrogen
    Hydrogen
    Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
    
     from water. Hydrogen is seen as vital to future energy systems, but its production has previously been too costly and time-consuming to be viable on a large scale. (BBC)
• 12 August – An ultra-thin, flexible electronic circuit that can be stuck to the skin like a temporary tattoo
  Tattoo
  A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
  
   is developed, with possible applications in cellphone and mobile computing
  Mobile computing
  Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
  
   technology. (The Independent)
• 16 August
  • Private donors, including actress Jodie Foster
    Jodie Foster
    Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
    
    , raise enough money to re-open the mothballed SETI
    SETI
    The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Some of the most well known projects are run by the SETI Institute. SETI projects use scientific methods to search for intelligent life...
    
     radio telescope array, allowing SETI to continue its search for extraterrestrial intelligence. (BBC)
  • A study of fossilised plants suggests that wood
    Wood
    Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
    
    y plants first appeared on the Earth about 10 million years earlier than previously thought. (BBC)
  • Taiwan
    Taiwan
    Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
    
    ese researchers report that 15 minutes of exercise a day can boost life expectancy
    Life expectancy
    Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
    
     by three years and cut death risk by 14%. (BBC)
• 17 August –
  • DARPA is offering $500,000 to study what it would take — organizationally, technically, sociologically and ethically — to send humans to another star
    Interstellar travel
    Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
    
    , a challenge of such magnitude that the study alone could take a hundred years. (NY Times)
  • Researchers at the University of Edinburgh
    University of Edinburgh
    The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
    
     state that near-death experiences are the work of neural pathway disturbances caused by a disruption of the oxygen
    Oxygen
    Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
    
     supply to the brain, and are not supernatural
    Supernatural
    The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
    
     events. (Scientific American) (Science Direct)
• 18 August
  • IBM
    IBM
    International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
    
     has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than ever to replicating the human brain. The system is capable of "rewiring" its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way biological synapses work. (BBC)
  • Within decades, solar storms are likely to become more disruptive to planes and spacecraft, say researchers at Reading University. (BBC)
• 19 August – The US Office of Naval Research
  Office of Naval Research
  The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
  
   says that it has successfully tested a new type of explosive material that can dramatically increase weapons' impacts. Missiles made from the high-density substance can explode with up to five times the energy of existing explosives. (BBC)
• 22 August – American researchers prototype a basic form of bulletproof skin, based on genetically-modified silkworm threads. (Police One)
• 23 August
  • The natural world contains about 8.7 million species
    Species
    In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
    
    , according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever. However, the vast majority of these species have not been identified – cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years. (BBC)
  • Computer simulations suggest that violent asteroid
    Asteroid
    Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
    
     impacts flinging life from Earth to other planets is more likely than previously thought. (BBC)
  • Researchers at the University of Leeds
    University of Leeds
    The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
    
     have discovered a pain-free way of tackling dental decay that reverses the damage of acid attack and re-builds teeth as new. (Science Daily)
• 24 August – Antibiotics' impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict the prescription of antibiotics to pregnant women and young children, according to a new study. (Wired) (Nature)
• 25 August – A monkey
  Monkey
  A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
  
   sporting a ginger beard and matching fiery red tail, discovered in a threatened region of the Brazil
  Brazil
  Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
  
  ian Amazon
  Amazon Rainforest
  The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
  
  , is believed to be a species new to science. (The Guardian)
• 29 August – Japanese scientists announce an innovation in wind turbine
  Wind turbine
  A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
  
   technology, the wind lens
  Wind lens
  A Wind lens is a modification made to a wind turbine to make it a more efficient way to capture wind energy. The modification is a ring structure called a brim or wind lens which surrounds the blades, diverting air away from the exhaust outflow behind the blades...
  
  , which could triple the energy output of wind turbines, making wind energy affectively cheaper than nuclear energy. (Mother Nature Network)
• 31 August
  • An engineered virus
    Virus
    A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
    
    , injected into the blood, can selectively target and destroy cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
    
     cells throughout the body, in what researchers have labelled a medical first. (BBC)
  • A pill to prevent sunburn
    Sunburn
    A sunburn is a burn to living tissue, such as skin, which is produced by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, commonly from the sun's rays. Usual mild symptoms in humans and other animals include red or reddish skin that is hot to the touch, general fatigue, and mild dizziness. An excess of UV...
    
     is being developed, using coral
    Coral
    Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
    
    's natural defence against the sun's harmful ultraviolet
    Ultraviolet
    Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
    
     rays. (BBC)
  • Graphene
    Graphene
    Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...
    
    , the strongest known material on Earth, could help boost broadband
    Broadband
    The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
    
     internet speed, say researchers. (BBC)
  • AMD
    Advanced Micro Devices
    Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
    
     has broken the world overclocking
    Overclocking
    Overclocking is the process of operating a computer component at a higher clock rate than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, but some manufacturers purposely underclock their components to improve battery life. Many people just overclock or 'rightclock' their hardware to...
    
     speed record, thanks to the use of liquid nitrogen
    Liquid nitrogen
    Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
    
     and liquid helium
    Liquid helium
    Helium exists in liquid form only at extremely low temperatures. The boiling point and critical point depend on the isotope of the helium; see the table below for values. The density of liquid helium-4 at its boiling point and 1 atmosphere is approximately 0.125 g/mL Helium-4 was first liquefied...
    
     coolant
    Computer cooling
    Computer cooling is required to remove the waste heat produced by computer components, to keep components within their safe operating temperature limits.Various cooling methods help to improve processor performance or reduce the noise of cooling fans....
    
    . The company achieved an overclocked frequency of 8.429 GHz on a near-production, eight-core AMD FX 8150 Bulldozer
    Bulldozer (processor)
    Bulldozer is the codename Advanced Micro Devices has given to one of the next-generation CPU cores after the K10 microarchitecture for the company's M-SPACE design methodology, with the core specifically aimed at 10-watt to 125-watt TDP computing products. Bulldozer is a completely new design...
    
     processor sample. (eweek europe)

September

• 2 September
  • Researchers create the smallest electric motor
    Single molecule electric motor
    The single molecule electric motor is an electrically operated motor which is made from a single butyl methyl sulphide molecule. The molecule is adsorbed onto a Copper single crystal piece by chemisorption. The motor, the world's smallest electric motor, is just a nanometer across...
    
     ever devised, made from a single molecule
    Molecule
    A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...
    
     around a nanometre
    Nanometre
    A nanometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billionth of a metre. The name combines the SI prefix nano- with the parent unit name metre .The nanometre is often used to express dimensions on the atomic scale: the diameter...
    
     across. The invention could have applications in both nanotechnology
    Nanotechnology
    Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
    
     and medicine. (BBC)
  • Researchers report two major breakthroughs in quantum computing — a quantum system built on the familiar von Neumann processor-memory architecture, and a working digital quantum simulator built on a quantum-computer platform. (PopSci)
  • Yale University
    Yale University
    Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
    
     researchers have discovered the source of signals that trigger hair
    Hair
    Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
    
     growth, an insight that may lead to new treatments for baldness
    Baldness
    Baldness implies partial or complete lack of hair and can be understood as part of the wider topic of "hair thinning". The degree and pattern of baldness can vary greatly, but its most common cause is male and female pattern baldness, also known as androgenic alopecia, alopecia androgenetica or...
    
    . (Science Daily)
  • Scientists map the taste cortex
    Cerebral cortex
    The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...
    
     in mice
    MICE
    -Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
    
    , pinpointing the brain regions that detect certain flavors. (PopSci)
  • Researchers suggest that dry desert planets, like the world depicted in the science fiction
    Science fiction
    Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
    
     novel Dune
    Dune (novel)
    Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
    
    , might be the most common type of habitable planet in the galaxy, rather than watery planets such as Earth
    Earth
    Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
    
    . (PhysOrg)
• 8 September
  • Cuba
    Cuba
    The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
    
    n medical authorities release the first therapeutic vaccine
    Vaccine
    A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
    
     for lung cancer
    Lung cancer
    Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
    
    . The vaccine, CimaVax-EGF, is the result of a 25-year research project at Havana
    Havana
    Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
    
    ’s Center for Molecular Immunology. (PopSci)
  • University of Glasgow
    University of Glasgow
    The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
    
     scientists have taken their first tentative steps towards creating “life” from inorganic chemical cells (iCHELLS), potentially defining the new area of “inorganic biology.” (KurzweilAI) (Wiley)
• 9 September – Feeding a supercomputer
  Supercomputer
  A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
  
   with news stories could help predict major world events, according to US researchers. (BBC)
• 12 September
  • Arctic sea ice has melted to a historic low, researchers from the University of Bremen
    University of Bremen
    The University of Bremen is a university of approximately 23,500 people from 126 countries that are studying, teaching, researching, and working in Bremen, Germany...
    
     in Germany
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
    
     report. (CNN)
  • Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory
    European Southern Observatory
    The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy, supported by fifteen countries...
    
    ’s HARPS instrument announce the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets – including 16 super-Earths – with one planet reportedly orbiting at the edge of the habitable zone of its star. By studying the properties of all the HARPS planets found so far, the team has found that about 40% of stars similar to our Sun
    Sun
    The 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...
    
     have at least one planet lighter than Saturn
    Saturn
    Saturn 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,...
    
    . (ESO)
• 13 September
  • The relative risks to the supply of some of Earth's rarest elements have been detailed in a new list published by the British Geological Survey
    British Geological Survey
    The British Geological Survey is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS headquarters are in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, but other centres...
    
     (BGS). (BBC) (BGS)
  • Researchers have developed a sophisticated camera system able to detect lies
    Lie Detector
    "Lie Detector" is a CD single by The Reverend Horton Heat. It was released in October 1998 on Sub Pop.-Personnel:*Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath - lead vocals, guitar*Jimbo Wallace - upright bass, vocals*Scott Churilla - drums, vocals...
    
     by watching facial movements during speech. (BBC)
• 14 September
  • NASA
    NASA
    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
    
     unveils the design for a new heavy-lift rocket
    Rocket
    A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
    
     to take humans to Mars
    Mars
    Mars 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...
    
     and the asteroids. (BBC)
  • Researchers may have discovered how to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier
    Blood-brain barrier
    The blood–brain barrier is a separation of circulating blood and the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system . It occurs along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around the capillaries that do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion...
    
     so that therapies to treat Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease
    Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
    
    , multiple sclerosis
    Multiple sclerosis
    Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
    
     and cancers of the central nervous system might effectively be delivered to the brain. (MedicalXpress)
• 15 September – A piece of amber
  Amber
  Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
  
   discovered in Alberta, Canada, contains an 80-million year old feather
  Feather
  Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...
  
   that could provide clues to the relationship between dinosaurs and modern avian species. (BBC)
• 16 September
  • Scientists’ predictions about the formation and characteristics of dark matter
    Dark matter
    In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
    
     have been shaken by research into dwarf galaxies surrounding the Milky Way
    Milky Way
    The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
    
    . (BBC)
  • Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs. (BBC)
• 19 September – People with schizophrenia
  Schizophrenia
  Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
  
   are six times more likely to develop epilepsy
  Epilepsy
  Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
  
  , reports a Taiwan
  Taiwan
  Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
  
  ese study, which found a strong relationship between the two diseases. (BBC)
• 20 September – US researchers say they have demonstrated how fuel cell
  Fuel cell
  A fuel cell is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. Hydrogen is the most common fuel, but hydrocarbons such as natural gas and alcohols like methanol are sometimes used...
  
  s powered by bacteria
  Bacteria
  Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
  
   can be "self-powered" and produce a limitless supply of hydrogen
  Hydrogen
  Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
  
   for hydrogen cars. (BBC)
• 22 September
  • An international team of scientists at CERN
    CERN
    The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
    
     has recorded neutrino
    Neutrino
    A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
    
     particles apparently traveling faster than the speed of light
    Speed of light
    The speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by c, is a physical constant important in many areas of physics. Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second, a figure that is exact since the length of the metre is defined from this constant and the international standard for time...
    
    . If confirmed, the discovery would overturn Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein
    Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
    
    's 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that nothing can travel faster than light. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • A non-disease-causing virus
    Virus
    A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
    
     kills human breast cancer
    Breast cancer
    Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
    
     cells in the laboratory, creating opportunities for potential new cancer therapies, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers who tested the virus on three different breast cancer types. (Pennsylvania State University)
• 26 September – Researchers have demonstrated that electron
  Electron
  The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
  
  s can move freely in layers of linked semiconductor
  Semiconductor
  A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
  
   nanoparticles under the influence of light. This discovery may assist the development of cheap and efficient quantum dot
  Quantum dot
  A quantum dot is a portion of matter whose excitons are confined in all three spatial dimensions. Consequently, such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules. They were discovered at the beginning of the 1980s by Alexei...
  
   solar cell
  Solar cell
  A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
  
  s. (Science Daily)
• 27 September
  • Scientists have successfully replaced an injured part of a rat
    Rat
    Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
    
    ’s brain with a synthetic substitute. (SmartPlanet)
  • Scientists have created a nanostructure which can multiply stem cells used in therapies – a first step towards developing large-scale stem cell culture factories. (Labmate online)
• 29 September
  • A rocket carrying China
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
    
    's first space laboratory module, Tiangong-1, is successfully launched, marking the start of the Tiangong space station
    Space station
    A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
    
     program. (BBC)
  • The development of self-healing materials
    Self-healing material
    Self-healing materials are a class of smart materials that have the structurally incorporated ability to repair damage caused by mechanical usage over time. The inspiration comes from biological systems, which have the ability to heal after being wounded...
    
     advances as scientists take inspiration from biological systems. (BBC)
  • Geothermal power plants could help produce lithium
    Lithium
    Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...
    
     for electric cars, by way of a new process which extracts lithium from the brine
    Brine
    Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
    
    s used to generate electricity in a geothermal power plant. (Scientific American)
• 30 September – Scientists release the most accurate simulation of the structure of the universe
  Universe
  The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
  
   to date. (ScienceDaily) (YouTube)

October

• 3 October
  • The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
    The 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...
    
     is shared by Bruce Beutler of the United States, Jules A. Hoffmann
    Jules A. Hoffmann
    Jules A. Hoffmann is a Luxembourgish-born French biologist. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France. In 2007, he became President of the French Academy of Sciences...
    
     of France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
    
     and Ralph M. Steinman
    Ralph M. Steinman
    Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian immunologist and cell biologist at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 coined the term dendritic cells while working as a postdoc in the lab of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University....
    
     of Canada
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
    
     (posthumously), for their research into the human immune system
    Immune system
    An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
    
    . (AP via New Zealand Herald) (BBC)
  • The Atacama Large Millimeter Array
    Atacama Large Millimeter Array
    The Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array is an array of radio telescopes in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. Since a high and dry site is crucial to millimeter wavelength operations, the array is being constructed on the Chajnantor plateau at 5000 metres altitude...
    
     in Chile
    Chile
    Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
    
     – the largest and most complex radio telescope
    Radio telescope
    A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
    
     ever built – begins operations. (BBC)
• 4 October – The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
  Nobel Prize in Physics
  The 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...
  
   is shared by Drs Adam Riess
  Adam Riess
  Adam Guy Riess is an American astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute and is widely known for his research in using supernovae as Cosmological Probes. Riess shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul...
  
  , Saul Perlmutter
  Saul Perlmutter
  Saul Perlmutter is an American astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of...
  
   and Brian Schmidt
  Brian Schmidt
  Brian L. Schmidt is a music composer for various video games and pinball games. He began in the video game music and sound industry in 1987 as a composer/sound designer and programmer for Williams Electronic Games in Chicago writing music and creating sound effects for pinball machines and coin...
  
   for their discoveries relating to dark energy
  Dark energy
  In physical cosmology, astronomy and celestial mechanics, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted theory to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding...
  
  . (New York Times)
• 5 October
  • The 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
    Nobel Prize in Chemistry
    The 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,...
    
     is awarded to Professor Dan Shechtman
    Dan Shechtman
    Dan Shechtman is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, an Associate of the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, and Professor of Materials Science at Iowa State University. On April 8, 1982, while on sabbatical at the U.S...
    
     of Iowa State University
    Iowa State University
    Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
    
     for the discovery of quasicrystals. (New York Times)
  • A form of cloning
    Cloning
    Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
    
     has been used to create personalised embryonic stem cells in humans, according to American researchers. (BBC)
• 6 October – A "smart pill" has been developed that is able to record accurate information about internal conditions in the gut, such as acidity, pressure and temperature. (The Yorkshire Post)
• 7 October – Data from the ESA's Venus Express
  Venus Express
  Venus Express is the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency. Launched in November 2005, it arrived at Venus in April 2006 and has been continuously sending back science data from its polar orbit around Venus. Equipped with seven science instruments, the main objective of the...
  
  probe reveals that the planet Venus
  Venus
  Venus 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...
  
   has an ozone layer
  Ozone layer
  The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...
  
   in its upper atmosphere. (BBC)
• 10 October
  • UK doctors report that the antibiotic
    Antibiotic
    An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...
    
     normally used to treat gonorrhoea is no longer effective, because the sexually-transmitted disease is now largely resistant to it. (BBC)
  • Exercise is equally effective at preventing migraines as drugs, a Swedish study suggests. (Science Daily)
• 12 October
  • The genetic code of the germ that caused the 14th-century Black Death
    Black Death
    The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
    
     has been reconstructed by scientists for the first time. The British researchers extracted DNA
    DNA
    Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
    
     fragments of the ancient bacterium from the teeth of medieval corpses found in London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
    
    . (BBC)
  • Ginger
    Ginger
    Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
    
     supplements may boost digestive and colon
    Colon (anatomy)
    The colon is the last part of the digestive system in most vertebrates; it extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body, and is the site in which flora-aided fermentation of unabsorbed material occurs. Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a...
    
     health, according to a new study. (Dr Cutler)
• 13 October – Silencing a protein
  Protein
  Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
  
   known as BCL11A can reactivate fetal hemoglobin
  Hemoglobin
  Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates...
  
   production in adult mice
  MICE
  -Fiction:*Mice , alien species in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*The Mice -Acronyms:* "Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions", facilities terminology for events...
  
   and effectively reverse sickle cell disease, according to a new study. (MedicalXpress)
• 14 October
  • Seven vehicle manufacturers in Europe and the US have agreed to adopt a standardised, universal charging system for electric vehicles. (New Scientist)
  • Using carbon nanotubes, researchers have created artificial muscles that can twist 1,000 times more than any similar material made in the past — a development that could prove useful in robotics
    Robotics
    Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...
    
     and prosthetic limbs. (Technology Review)
• 16 October – For the first time, researchers have found a way to inject a precise dose of a gene therapy
  Gene therapy
  Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
  
   agent directly into a single living cell without using a needle. The technique uses electricity to fire therapeutic biomolecules through a tiny channel and into a cell in a fraction of a second. (PhysOrg)
• 17 October – The world's first commercial spaceport
  Spaceport
  A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...
  
  , Spaceport America
  Spaceport America
  Spaceport America is a spaceport located in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin in New Mexico, United States. It lies north of El Paso, north of Las Cruces, east of Truth or Consequences...
  
  , is opened by Virgin Group
  Virgin Group
  Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
  
   chairman Richard Branson
  Richard Branson
  Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
  
   in the U.S. state
  U.S. state
  A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
  
   of New Mexico
  New Mexico
  New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
  
  . The SpaceShipTwo spaceplane
  Spaceplane
  A spaceplane is a vehicle that operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere, as well as a spacecraft when it is in space. It combines features of an aircraft and a spacecraft, which can be thought of as an aircraft that can endure and maneuver in the vacuum of space or likewise a spacecraft that...
  
   is expected to begin commercial flights from the spaceport by 2013. (BBC)
• 18 October
  • The World Health Organisation reports that global malaria
    Malaria
    Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
    
     deaths have fallen by 20% since 2001, claiming that over 30 countries are on course to eradicate the mosquito
    Mosquito
    Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
    
    -borne disease by 2020. The fall in deaths is believed to be the result of improved diagnostic technologies and wider use of malaria vaccine
    Malaria vaccine
    Malaria vaccines are an area of intensive research. However, there is no effective vaccine that has been introduced into clinical practice.The global burden of P. falciparum malaria increased through the 1990s due to drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes; this is illustrated...
    
    s. (BBC)
  • A malaria
    Malaria
    Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
    
     vaccine has shown promising results in a clinical trial in Africa. (BBC)
  • Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice
    European Court of Justice
    The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
    
    , has ruled that stem cells from human embryos
    Embryonic stem cell
    Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...
    
     cannot be patent
    Patent
    A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
    
    ed, in a case that could have major implications for stem cell research and regenerative medicine
    Regenerative medicine
    Regenerative medicine is the "process of replacing or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore orestablish normal function". This field holds the promise of regenerating damaged tissues and organs in the body by replacing damaged tissue and/or by stimulating the body's own repair...
    
    . (BBC)
  • Spanish
    Spain
    Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
    
     engineers have developed a machine that uses artificial vision
    Machine vision
    Machine vision is the process of applying a range of technologies and methods to provide imaging-based automatic inspection, process control and robot guidance in industrial applications. While the scope of MV is broad and a comprehensive definition is difficult to distil, a "generally accepted...
    
     and UV
    Ultraviolet
    Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...
    
     rays to scan through citrus
    Citrus
    Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
    
     fruits and detect rotten ones. (BBC)
  • Joseph Fourier University
    Joseph Fourier University
    Université Joseph Fourier , often known as UJF, is a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health...
    
     have developed a biofuel cell that can generate electricity from glucose
    Glucose
    Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...
    
     and oxygen. This could allow patients to power their own medical implants. (BBC)
• 19 October
  • British computer chip designer ARM
    ARM
    An arm is an upper limb of the body.Arm may also refer to:-Geography:* Arm , a narrow stretch of a larger body of water** Canal arm, a subsidiary branch of a canal or inland waterway** Distributary or arm, a subsidiary branch of a river...
    
     unveils the Cortex A7 processor, which should allow manufacturers to make cheaper and more efficient smartphone
    Smartphone
    A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
    
    s. (BBC)
  • Imperial College London
    Imperial College London
    Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
    
     researchers have shown logic gates can be built out of E. coli bacteria and DNA
    DNA
    Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
    
    . This could be used to make sophisticated diagnostic cells that assess and treat illness in the body. (KurzweilAI)
• 21 October
  • The Earth's surface is undeniably warming
    Global warming
    Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
    
    , according to a detailed new analysis by an American scientific group. (BBC) (Berkeley Earth Project)
  • Further research has been published suggesting there is no link between mobile phone
    Mobile phone
    A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
    
    s and brain cancer. The latest study looked at more than 350,000 mobile phone users over an 18-year period. (BBC)
  • The first two satellites of the Galileo satellite navigation system are launched from Guiana Space Center by the European Space Agency
    European Space Agency
    The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
    
    . The Galileo system is intended to reduce Europe's reliance on America's dominant Global Positioning System
    Global Positioning System
    The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
    
     (GPS). (Bloomberg)
• 24 October – India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
  's Minister of Health
  Minister of Health and Family Welfare (India)
  The Minister of Health and Family Welfare is the head of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India....
  
  , Ghulam Nabi Azad
  Ghulam Nabi Azad
  Ghulam Nabi Azad is an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress and the current Minister of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India....
  
  , reports that the country has almost entirely eradicated polio through a vaccination
  Polio vaccine
  Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
  
   program which immunises over 170 million children every year. No new polio cases have been reported in India for over nine months. (BBC)
• 25 October
  • Human DNA may carry a ‘memory’ of living conditions in childhood, according to a new study. (Science Blog)
  • Space telescope observations indicate that the supernova
    Supernova
    A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
    
     RCW 86
    SN 185
    SN 185 was a supernova which appeared in the year 185 AD, near the direction of Alpha Centauri, between the constellations Circinus and Centaurus, centered at RA Dec , in Circinus. This "guest star" was observed by Chinese astronomers in the Book of Later Han, and may have been recorded in Roman...
    
    , first seen by Chinese astronomers
    Chinese astronomy
    Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians considering that "they [the Chinese] were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs."...
    
     in 185 AD, expanded at an unprecedented rate due to the formation of a vacuum
    Vacuum
    In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
    
    -like "cavity" around it in the early stages of the death of its star
    Star
    A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
    
    . The expansion of the supernova, which was visible even in daylight when first discovered, has remained a mystery for nearly 2,000 years. (BBC)
  • The last of the United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
    
    ' B53
    B53 nuclear bomb
    The Mk/B53 was a high-yield bunker buster thermonuclear weapon developed by the United States during the Cold War. Deployed on Strategic Air Command bombers, the B53, with a yield of , was the most powerful weapon in the U.S...
    
     nuclear warheads is disassembled near Amarillo, Texas
    Texas
    Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
    
    . The nine-megaton
    TNT equivalent
    TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
    
     bomb, which first entered service in 1962, was formerly the most powerful nuclear weapon
    Nuclear weapon
    A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
    
     in the country's nuclear arsenal
    United States and weapons of mass destruction
    The United States is known to have possessed three types of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons. The U.S. is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat. The U.S. also used chemical weapons in World War I...
    
    , possessing nearly 600 times the yield of the Little Boy
    Little Boy
    "Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
    
     atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima
    Hiroshima
    is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
    
     in 1945. (AP)
• 26 October
  • The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a composite-based airliner
    Airliner
    An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...
    
     with up to 20% greater fuel efficiency than previous models, completes its first commercial flight for All Nippon Airways
    All Nippon Airways
    , also known as or ANA, is one of the largest airlines in Japan. It is headquartered at the Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It operates services to 49 destinations in Japan and 35 international routes and employed over 14,000 employees as of May 2009...
    
    , after a three-year production delay. (BBC)
  • American scientists confirm that an infectious fungus
    Fungus
    A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...
    
    , Geomyces destructans
    Geomyces destructans
    Geomyces destructans is a psychrophilic fungus that is associated with White nose syndrome , a fatal disease that has decimated bat populations in parts of the US. Unlike other species of Geomyces, Geomyces destructans forms asymmetrically curved conidia...
    
    , is responsible for the incurable white-nose syndrome that has decimated bat
    Bat
    Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
    
     populations across North America since 2006. (BBC)
  • Scientists at the University of Hong Kong have found that the cosmic dust
    Cosmic dust
    Cosmic dust is a type of dust composed of particles in space which are a few molecules to 0.1 µm in size. Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location; for example: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust and circumplanetary dust .In our own Solar...
    
     permeating the universe contains complex organic
    Organic compound
    An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
    
     matter, described as "amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure". Such organic matter could be created naturally, and rapidly, by star
    Star
    A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
    
    s.
• 27 October
  • Researchers in Oxford
    Oxford
    The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
    
    , England
    England
    England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
    
    , begin human trials of a pioneering gene therapy
    Gene therapy
    Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
    
     technique, which is hoped to provide a cure for crippling ocular
    Eye
    Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
    
     defects such as retina
    Retina
    The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
    
    l choroideremia
    Choroideremia
    Choroideremia is an X-linked recessive retinal degenerative disease that leads to the degeneration of the choriocapillaris, the retinal pigment epithelium, and the photoreceptor of the eye....
    
    . (BBC)
  • New measurements reveal that the dwarf planet
    Dwarf planet
    A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...
    
     Eris
    Eris (dwarf planet)
    Eris, formal designation 136199 Eris, is the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth most massive body known to orbit the Sun directly...
    
     is almost identical in size to Pluto
    Pluto
    Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
    
    , which was deemed to be a dwarf planet in 2006. (Wired)
• 28 October
  • British scientists report that a daily dose of aspirin
    Aspirin
    Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
    
     can reduce the incidence of bowel cancer in people at high risk of the disease. (BBC)
  • Human-caused climate change is already a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts, according to a new study, which shows that the magnitude and frequency of drying is too great to be explained by natural variability alone. (NOAA)
  • NASA launches the NPOESS Preparatory Project
    NPOESS Preparatory Project
    The NPOESS Preparatory Project mission is intended to bridge the gap between old and new systems by flying new instruments, on a new satellite bus, using a new ground data network...
    
     – the first of its next generation of polar-orbiting satellites dedicated to gathering weather and climate data. (BBC) (NASA)
• 29 October – CERN
  CERN
  The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
  
   researchers attempt to repeat a recent experiment
  OPERA neutrino anomaly
  The OPERA neutrino anomaly is the detection of apparently faster-than-light neutrinos by the OPERA experiment as publicly announced in September 2011. The detection is anomalous because speeds exceeding that of light in a vacuum are generally thought to violate special relativity, a prevailing...
  
   that apparently yielded faster-than-light
  Faster-than-light
  Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
  
   neutrino
  Neutrino
  A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
  
  s, using a more efficient system of measurement to validate their results. (The Guardian)
• 31 October
  • The world population
    World population
    The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be  billion by the United States Census Bureau...
    
     reaches seven billion, according to the United Nations
    United Nations
    The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
    
    . (The Guardian)
  • One element of the European Extreme Light Infrastructure
    Extreme Light Infrastructure
    The Extreme Light Infrastructure is a proposed high energy laser research facility of the European Union. The facility will host an exawatt-class laser, that will enable scientists, through relativistic compression, to produce intensities of 1023 W/cm2...
    
    , a network of experimental laser
    Laser
    A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
    
    s designed to produce greater energy intensities than any previous lasers, is proposed to be built in Britain. (Daily Mail)

November

• 1 November
  • India
    India
    India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
    
     announces plans for a prototype nuclear power plant
    Nuclear power plant
    A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
    
     that uses thorium
    Thorium
    Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
    
     – an innovative, potentially safer nuclear fuel. (The Guardian)
  • Scientists have transformed age-worn cells in people over 90 – including a centenarian
    Centenarian
    A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
    
     – into rejuvenated stem cells that are "indistinguishable" from those found in embryo
    Embryo
    An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
    
    s. (Medical Xpress)
• 2 November
  • China
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
    
    's unmanned Shenzhou 8
    Shenzhou 8
    Shenzhou 8 was an unmanned flight of China's Shenzhou program, launched on October 31, 2011 UTC, or November 1 in China, by a modified Long March 2F rocket which lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center....
    
     spacecraft robotically docks with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space station
    Space station
    A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
    
     module, marking China's first orbital docking, and a major milestone in its efforts to construct a full-scale space station by 2020. (BBC)
  • American researchers delay, and in some cases even eliminate, the onset of age-related symptoms such as wrinkles, muscle wasting and cataracts in mice. The development may have significant implications for the study and treatment of such symptoms in humans. (BBC) (Nature)
  • Morocco
    Morocco
    Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
    
     is chosen as the first location for Desertec
    Desertec
    DESERTEC is a concept proposed by the DESERTEC Foundation for making use of solar energy and wind energy. This concept will be implemented in North Africa and the Middle East by the consortium Dii GmbH, formed by a group of European companies and the DESERTEC Foundation...
    
     – a German-led, €400bn project to build a vast network of solar and windfarm
    WindFarm
    WindFarm is wind energy software used to analyse, design, optimise and visualise wind farms. It calculates and optimises the energy yield subject to natural, planning and engineering constraints. WindFarm has the wind modelling software MS-Micro integrated. MS-Micro is based on the same...
    
    s across North Africa and the Middle East, with the aim of providing 15% of Europe's electricity supply by 2050. (The Guardian)
• 4 November
  • Six men emerge from the 520-day MARS-500
    MARS-500
    Mars-500 was an international multi-part isolation experiment simulating a manned flight to Mars. The experiment's facility was located at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. A total of 640 experiment days were scheduled between 2007 and 2011,...
    
     isolation experiment, which aimed to simulate a manned mission to Mars
    Manned mission to Mars
    A manned mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, engineering, and scientific proposals throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century...
    
    . The experiment, undertaken at a Moscow
    Moscow
    Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
    
     scientific institute, was intended to find out how the human mind and body would cope with the isolation of a long-duration spaceflight. (BBC)
  • A 20-year-old alternative solar cell
    Solar cell
    A solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
    
     design using dye-sensitized nanocrystal cells (DSC) could lead to cheap, printable
    3D printing
    3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable, and easier to use than other additive manufacturing technologies. However, the term 3D printing is...
    
     cells, revolutionising solar power
    Solar power
    Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
    
     use worldwide, according to a new study. (KurzweilAI)
• 5 November
  • An American doctor claims that brown eyes can safely and permanently be turned blue by using short laser
    Laser
    A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
    
     pulses to destroy pigment in the iris
    Iris (anatomy)
    The iris is a thin, circular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupils and thus the amount of light reaching the retina. "Eye color" is the color of the iris, which can be green, blue, or brown. In some cases it can be hazel , grey, violet, or even pink...
    
    . (BBC)
  • An official White House
    White House
    The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
    
     report states that "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet
    Extraterrestrial life
    Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
    
    , or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race." It furthermore asserts that there is "no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye." Although odds are "pretty high" that there may be life on other planets, "the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved."
• 6 November – Dopamine
  Dopamine
  Dopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter present in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the brain, this substituted phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five known types of dopamine receptors—D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5—and their...
  
  -producing brain cells that are killed off by Parkinson's disease
  Parkinson's disease
  Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
  
   have been grown from stem cells and grafted into monkeys' brains by American researchers, in a major step towards new treatments for the condition. (The Guardian)
• 8 November
  • The asteroid
    Asteroid
    Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
    
     YU₅₅
    2005 YU55
    ', also written as 2005 YU55, is a potentially hazardous asteroid 310 meters or about 400 m in diameter. It was discovered on 28 December 2005 by Robert S. McMillan at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak. On 8 November 2011 it passed 0.85 lunar distances from the Earth...
    
     makes a close Earth flyby, passing within 0.85 lunar distance
    Lunar distance (astronomy)
    In astronomy, a lunar distance is a measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 kilometers...
    
    s (about 201,700 miles) of the Earth. YU₅₅ is approximately 400 metres (1,312.3 ft) across, and is the largest asteroid to make a close pass since 1976. Another comparable flyby will not occur until 2028. (BBC)
  • Russia launches the Phobos-Grunt
    Phobos-Grunt
    Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. It was launched on 9 November 2011 at 02:16 local time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it...
    
     probe, marking the nation's first attempt at an interplanetary mission since 1996. The mission's goal is to obtain samples from Phobos
    Phobos
    Phobos may refer to:* an Ancient Greek word for fear* Phobos , the Greek god of fear* Phobos , a moon of Mars* Phobos , a 1997 album by Canadian heavy metal band Voivod...
    
    ' surface and return them to Earth in 2014. The Chinese Yinghuo-1 probe, China's first Mars
    Mars
    Mars 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...
    
    -exploration spacecraft, is also launched. However, despite reaching orbit successfully, the two spacecraft are left unable to begin their journey to Mars, due to the failure of a secondary engine to ignite. (Space.com) (BBC)
  • Honda
    Honda
    is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
    
     revamps its humanoid robot
    Humanoid robot
    A humanoid robot or an anthropomorphic robot is a robot with its overall appearance, based on that of the human body, allowing interaction with made-for-human tools or environments. In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots...
    
    , Asimo
    ASIMO
    is a humanoid robot created by Honda. Introduced in 2000, ASIMO, which is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility", was created to be a helper to people. With aspirations of helping people who lack full mobility, ASIMO is used to encourage young people to study science and mathematics...
    
    , giving it enhanced artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
    
    , the ability to move without being controlled by an operator, and a greater capability to cope with different situations. (USA Today)
  • A Scottish-designed bionic leg exoskeleton
    Powered exoskeleton
    A powered exoskeleton, also known as powered armor, or exoframe, is a powered mobile machine consisting primarily of an exoskeleton-like framework worn by a person and a power supply that supplies at least part of the activation-energy for limb movement.Powered exoskeletons are designed to assist...
    
    , designed to allow handicapped people to walk, is approved for sale in the United Kingdom. (BBC)
• 9 November
  • Dutch scientists build a nanoscopic "electric car
    Electric car
    An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
    
    " made of a single complex molecule
    Molecule
    A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...
    
    , capable of travelling small distances when an electric current is applied to it. Though currently at a rudimentary level of development, the invention may have applications in the fields of nanorobotics
    Nanorobotics
    Nanorobotics is the emerging technology field of creating machines or robots whose components are at or close to the scale of a nanometer . More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots, with devices ranging in size from...
    
     and molecular machinery. (BBC)
  • A team of scientists in Japan synthesize the world's first stem-cell
    Stem cell
    This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
    
    -derived pituitary gland
    Pituitary gland
    In vertebrate anatomy the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g , in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold...
    
    . (Technology Review)
  • If current trends continue, Earth will almost certainly suffer a mass extinction of species, according to a major new survey of 583 conservation scientists published in Conservation Biology. (MongaBay.com)
• 10 November
  • No wild black rhinos
    Western Black Rhinoceros
    The Western Black Rhinoceros or West African Black Rhinoceros is an extinct subspecies of the Black Rhino...
    
     remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species. (BBC)
  • British computer chip designer ARM
    ARM Holdings
    ARM Holdings plc is a British multinational semiconductor and software company headquartered in Cambridge. Its largest business is in processors, although it also designs, licenses and sells software development tools under the RealView and KEIL brands, systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip...
    
     unveils its latest graphics processing unit (GPU) for mobile devices. The Mali-T658 offers up to ten times the performance of its predecessor, and may start to appear in devices towards the end of 2013. (BBC) (ARM)
  • A method of communicating with brain-damaged
    Brain damage
    "Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
    
     patients who appear to be in a vegetative state has been discovered by scientists in the UK and Belgium
    Belgium
    Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
    
    . (BBC)
• 14 November
  • A study of heart failure patients treated with their own stem cells has achieved striking results and could result in the biggest breakthrough in a generation. (Daily Telegraph)
  • Scientists have used brain scan images to create the world's first movie of the female brain as it approaches, experiences and recovers from an orgasm
    Orgasm
    Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...
    
    . (The Guardian)
  • New research suggests that owning a cat
    Cat
    The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
    
     has a positive impact on mental wellbeing. (MentalHealth.org.uk)
• 15 November
  • 95% of adults worldwide now own cellphones, according to a new study. (Market Watch)
  • British doctors report that they have cured a baby boy of a life-threatening liver
    Liver
    The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
    
     disease using implanted cells which acted like a temporary liver, allowing the damaged organ to recover. The cell implant technique, developed by researchers at King's College Hospital
    King's College Hospital
    King's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH"...
    
    , London, is described as a world first. (BBC)
  • American researchers report that the recharge speed of lithium-ion batteries can be significantly enhanced by making millions of tiny holes in them. The discovery could lead to laptop and cellphone batteries which recharge ten times faster and hold a charge ten times larger than current technology allows. (BBC)
• 16 November
  • Police in Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
    
     consider the use of airborne surveillance drones to combat crime, following the adoption of such technology by other UK police forces. Canadian drone manufacturer Aeryon Labs is cited as a potential supplier. (BBC)
  • Intel debuts an accelerator chip capable of running at speeds of one teraflop at a supercomputing
    Supercomputer
    A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
    
     conference in Seattle. The device, dubbed Knights Corner, combines 50 individual processor cores into a single chip. (BBC) (Intel)
  • A report commissioned by the State of New York warns that future Hurricane Irene-like storms could put a third of New York City
    New York City
    New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
    
     under water and flood many of the tunnels leading into Manhattan
    Manhattan
    Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
    
     in under an hour, due to the effects of climate change
    Climate change
    Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
    
    . (The Guardian)
  • Scientists report that estimates of the rate of amphibian population decline
    Decline in amphibian populations
    Dramatic declines in amphibian populations, including population crashes and mass localized extinctions, have been noted since the 1980s from locations all over the world...
    
     are too optimistic, and that populations could decline even faster than previously thought. (The Guardian)
• 17 November
  • Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
    
     design a computer chip that mimics the way that the human brain's neuron
    Neuron
    A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
    
    s adapt in response to new information. (BBC) (MIT)
  • China's unmanned Shenzhou 8
    Shenzhou 8
    Shenzhou 8 was an unmanned flight of China's Shenzhou program, launched on October 31, 2011 UTC, or November 1 in China, by a modified Long March 2F rocket which lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center....
    
     spacecraft returns to Earth after successfully docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 laboratory module. The manned Shenzhou 9
    Shenzhou 9
    Shenzhou 9 is a planned, probably manned flight of China's Shenzhou program that is scheduled for launch in March or April 2012, following the unmanned Shenzhou 8 mission in 2011. The aim of the mission will be to perform a docking with the Tiangong 1...
    
     and 10
    Shenzhou 10
    Shenzhou 10 is a planned manned spaceflight of China's Shenzhou program that is scheduled for launch in 2012. This conventional Shenzhou will carry a crew of three astronauts...
    
     follow-up missions are expected to visit Tiangong-1 in 2012. (BBC)
  • For the first time, astronomers have produced a complete description of a black hole
    Black hole
    A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
    
    . The American team conducted precise measurements using ground- and orbit-based telescopes, allowing them to reconstruct the complete history of the Cygnus X-1
    Cygnus X-1
    Cygnus X-1 is a well-known galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus. It was discovered in 1964 during a rocket flight and is one of the strongest X-ray sources seen from Earth, producing a peak X-ray flux density of 2.3 Wm−2Hz−1...
    
     object from its birth some six million years ago. (Science Daily)
• 18 November
  • A team of American engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material – a microlattice of metallic tubes
    Metallic microlattice
    A metallic microlattice is a synthetic porous metallic material, consisting of an ultra-light form of metal foam. Its creators claim it is the "lightest structural material" known, with a density as low as 0.9 mg/cm3...
    
     100 times lighter than Styrofoam
    Styrofoam
    Styrofoam is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company for closed-cell currently made for thermal insulation and craft applications. In 1941, researchers in Dow's Chemical Physics Lab found a way to make foamed polystyrene...
    
    , with "extraordindary" energy absorption properties. The new material may have applications in the development of next-generation batteries and shock absorber
    Shock absorber
    A shock absorber is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock impulse, and dissipate kinetic energy. It is a type of dashpot.-Nomenclature:...
    
    s. (BBC)
  • OPERA physicists
    OPERA Experiment
    The Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus is a scientific experiment for detecting tau neutrinos from muon neutrino oscillations. It is a collaboration between CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Gran Sasso, Italy and uses the CERN Neutrinos...
    
     conduct a follow-up experiment which confirms their earlier observations, first reported on 22 September 2011, of neutrinos apparently exceeding the speed of light.
  • The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command successfully tests a new hypersonic
    Hypersonic
    In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...
    
     weapon system, capable of striking targets 3700 kilometres (2,299.1 mi) away in under 30 minutes. The weapon was developed as part of the Prompt Global Strike
    Prompt Global Strike
    Prompt Global Strike is a United States military effort to develop a system that can deliver a precision conventional weapon strike anywhere in the world within one hour, in a similar manner to a nuclear ICBM. Potential scenarios that would require such a fast response might include an impending...
    
     program. (BBC)
  • American scientists develop an ultra-thin, ultra-flexible brain implant with resolution fifty times greater than was previously possible, designed to monitor epileptic seizures. The device could revolutionize epilepsy
    Epilepsy
    Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
    
     treatment and lead to a deeper understanding of brain function. (Technology Review)
• 19 November – A computer system able to read scientific papers in a similar way to humans
  Computer vision
  Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...
  
   promises breakthroughs in cancer research
  Cancer research
  Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure....
  
  , according to scientists at Cambridge University. Called CRAB, the system is able to trawl through millions of peer-reviewed articles for clues to the causes of tumours. (The Telegraph)
• 22 November – Washington University scientists successfully trial a new generation of contact lenses capable of projecting images in front of the eyes. Human trials are expected to follow the successful animal trials. (BBC)
• 24 November – Japanese researchers have developed a way to illuminate tiny, hidden tumors with a fluorescent spray. Within minutes, doctors can track down residual cancer that has spread and scattered throughout the body, helping to ensure that no tumors are left behind during surgery. (Smart Planet)
• 26 November – NASA's Mars Science Laboratory
  Mars Science Laboratory
  The Mars Science Laboratory is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission with the aim to land and operate a rover named Curiosity on the surface of Mars. The MSL was launched November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST and is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater between August 6 and 20, 2012...
  
   mission successfully launches for Mars
  Mars
  Mars 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...
  
  . The mission is scheduled to land the robotic Curiosity rover
  Mars Rover
  A Mars rover is an automated motor vehicle which propels itself across the surface of the planet Mars after landing.Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to...
  
   on the surface of Mars in August 2012, whereupon the rover will search for evidence of past or present life on Mars
  Life on Mars
  Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. Fictional Martians have been a recurring feature of popular entertainment of the 20th and 21st centuries, but it remains an open question whether life currently exists on...
  
  . (Chicago Tribune) (Launch Video – 04:00)
• 28 November – Swiss researchers are developing magnetic nanoparticles that could be used to remove harmful substances from the bloodstream. (Technology Review)
• 30 November – Researchers at Washington State University
  Washington State University
  Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
  
   develop an artificial bone "scaffold" which can be produced using 3D printers, potentially allowing doctors to quickly print replacement bone tissue for injured patients. (BBC)

January

• 1 January – Louise Reiss
  Louise Reiss
  Louise Marie Zibold Reiss was an American physician who coordinated what became known as the Baby Tooth Survey, in which deciduous teeth from children living in the St. Louis, Missouri area who were born in the 1950s and 1960s were collected and analyzed over a period of 12 years...
  
  , American physician, co-ordinated the Baby Tooth Survey
  Baby Tooth Survey
  The Baby Tooth Survey was initiated by the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information in conjunction with Saint Louis University and the Washington University School of Dental Medicine as a means of determining the effects of nuclear fallout in the human anatomy by examining the...
  
   (b. 1920
  1920 in science
  The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
  
  ).
• 3 January – Anatoliy Skorokhod
  Anatoliy Skorokhod
  Anatoliy Volodymyrovych Skorokhod was a Soviet and Ukrainian mathematician, and an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine from 1985 to his death in 2011....
  
  , Ukrainian mathematician (b. 1930
  1930 in science
  The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 18 - Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.* Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.-Atmospheric chemistry:...
  
  ).
• 4 January – Jack Richardson
  Jack Richardson (chemical engineer)
  John Francis "Jack" Richardson, OBE, was a UK chemical engineering academic, notable for his research into multiphase flow and rheology, but best-known for a series of textbooks.-Life:...
  
  , British chemical engineer (b. 1920
  1920 in science
  The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
  
  ).
• 5 January – Jack Ertle Oliver
  Jack Ertle Oliver
  John "Jack" Ertle Oliver was an American scientist. Oliver, who earned his PhD. at Columbia University in 1953, studied earthquakes and ultimately provided seismic evidence supporting plate tectonics...
  
  , American scientist, provided seismic evidence supporting plate tectonics
  Plate tectonics
  Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
  
   (b. 1923
  1923 in science
  The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
  
  ).
• 8 January – Willi Dansgaard
  Willi Dansgaard
  Willi Dansgaard was a Danish paleoclimatologist. He was Professor Emeritus of Geophysics at the University of Copenhagen and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Icelandic Academy of Sciences, and the Danish Geophysical Society.-...
  
  , Danish paleoclimatologist and geophysicist (b. 1922
  1922 in science
  The year 1922 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 17 January
  • Shinichiro Sakurai
    Shinichiro Sakurai
    was a Japanese engineer inducted into the Japan Automotive Hall of Fame who originally worked for Prince Motor Company then later moved to Nissan. After graduating from Yokohama National University, Sakurai joined Prince as a chassis engineer in 1952, and was heavily involved in the development of...
    
    , Japanese automotive engineer (b. 1929
    1929 in science
    The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
    
    ).
  • Bernard Crossland
    Bernard Crossland
    Prof Sir Bernard Crossland CBE, FRS was an engineering educator with a career spanning some seven decades. He was made a Freeman of the City of London in 1987 and was knighted in 1990 for services to Northern Ireland.-Life:...
    
    , British engineer (b. 1923
    1923 in science
    The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
    
    ).
• 18 January – John Herivel
  John Herivel
  John W. Herivel was a British science historian and former World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park.As a codebreaker concerned with Cryptanalysis of the Enigma, Herivel is remembered chiefly for the discovery of what was soon dubbed the Herivel tip or Herivelismus...
  
  , British historian of science and former cryptanalyst (b. 1918
  1918 in science
  The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
  
  ).
• 19 January – Ernest McCulloch
  Ernest McCulloch
  Ernest Armstrong McCulloch, OC, O.Ont, FRSC was a University of Toronto cellular biologist, best known for demonstrating – with James Till – the existence of stem cells.-Biography:...
  
  , Canadian haematologist, pioneer of stem cell science (b. 1926
  1926 in science
  The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
  
  ).
• 25 January – Daniel Bell
  Daniel Bell
  Daniel Bell was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritus at Harvard University, best known for his seminal contributions to the study of post-industrialism...
  
  , American sociologist (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 31 January – Charles Kaman
  Charles Kaman
  Charles Huron Kaman was an American aeronautical engineer, businessman, inventor and philanthropist, known for his work in rotary-wing flight and also in musical instrument design via the Kaman Music Corporation.-Biography:...
  
  , American aeronautical engineer (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).

February

• 2 February – Rodney Hill
  Rodney Hill
  Rodney Hill FRS was an applied mathematician and a former Professor of Mechanics of Solids at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge....
  
  , British mathematician, pioneer of plasticity
  Plasticity (physics)
  In physics and materials science, plasticity describes the deformation of a material undergoing non-reversible changes of shape in response to applied forces. For example, a solid piece of metal being bent or pounded into a new shape displays plasticity as permanent changes occur within the...
  
   theory (b. 1921
  1921 in science
  The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
  
  ).
• 6 February – Ken Olsen
  Ken Olsen
  Kenneth Harry Olsen was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson.-Background:...
  
  , American engineer, Digital Equipment Corporation
  Digital Equipment Corporation
  Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
  
   founder (b. 1926
  1926 in science
  The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
  
  ).
• 8 February – Bradley C. Livezey
  Bradley C. Livezey
  Bradley Curtis Livezey was an American ornithologist. His main research included the evolution of flightless birds, the ecology and the behaviour of steamer ducks, genetic analysis of birds, and avian diseases....
  
  , American ornithologist (b. 1954
  1954 in science
  The year 1954 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs...
  
  ).
• 10 February – Oleg Lavrentiev
  Oleg Lavrentiev
  - Biography :Born in Pskov, into a family of descendants of peasants.His father, Alexander, completed 2 years at a parochial school, worked as a clerk at a Pskov factory, his mother, Alexandra - completed 4 years, a nurse....
  
  , Soviet physicist (b. 1926
  1926 in science
  The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
  
  ).
• 11 February – Christian J. Lambertsen
  Christian J. Lambertsen
  Christian James Lambertsen was an American environmental medicine and diving medicine specialist who was principally responsible for developing the United States Navy frogmen's rebreathers in the early 1940s for underwater warfare...
  
  , American physician and engineer, developer of the first SCUBA
  Scuba set
  A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
  
   device (b. 1917
  1917 in science
  The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
  
  ).
• 13 February
  • Nobutoshi Kihara
    Nobutoshi Kihara
    Nobutoshi Kihara was an engineer at Sony, best known for his work on the original Walkman cassette-tape player in the 1970s and was commonly called Mr...
    
    , Japanese engineer, lead worker on the Sony Walkman (b. 1926
    1926 in science
    The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
    
    ).
  • Shi Yafeng
    Shi Yafeng
    Shi Yafeng was a senior academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was an expert on geography and glaciology, and regarded as the "Father of Chinese Glaciology".-Life:Shi was born in Haimen, Jiangsu Province on March 21, 1919...
    
    , Chinese geographer and glaciology
    Glaciology
    Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...
    
     expert (b. 1919
    1919 in science
    The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
    
    ).
• 15 February – Charles Epstein
  Charles Epstein (geneticist)
  Charles Joseph Epstein of Tiburon, California, was a geneticist who was severely injured in 1993 when he became a victim of a mail bomb attack by the Unabomber.He died of pancreatic cancer.-References:...
  
  , American geneticist and Unabomber victim (b. 1933
  1933 in science
  The year 1933 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky invent the concept of neutron star, a new type of celestial object, suggesting that supernovae might be created by the collapse of a normal star to form a neutron...
  
  ).
• 17 February – Richard F. Daines
  Richard F. Daines
  Richard Frederick Daines, M.D. was an American doctor and served as the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health from 2007 through 2010...
  
  , American physician and health official (b. 1951
  1951 in science
  The year 1951 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Computer science:* February - Ferranti deliver their first Mark 1 computer to the University of Manchester . It is the world's first commercially-available general-purpose electronic computer.* March 30 -...
  
  ).
• 19 February – Anson Rainey
  Anson Rainey
  Anson Frank Rainey was Professor Emeritus of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures and Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University. He is known in particular for contributions to the study of the Amarna tablets, the legendary administrative letters from the period of Pharaoh Akhenaten's rule during the...
  
  , American scholar of Near East history and Linguistics (b. 1930
  1930 in science
  The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 18 - Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.* Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.-Atmospheric chemistry:...
  
  ).
• 20 February – Frank A. McClintock
  Frank A. McClintock
  Frank A. McClintock of Needham, Massachusetts, was an American mechanical engineer in material science. A pioneer in the study of ductile fracture, McClintock was an Emeritus professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Along with Ali S...
  
  , American mechanical engineer (b. 1921
  1921 in science
  The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
  
  ).
• 21 February – Edwin D. Kilbourne
  Edwin D. Kilbourne
  Edwin Dennis Kilbourne was an American research scientist. Born in Buffalo, New York, he received his AB and MD degrees from Cornell University. After completion of service in the Medical Corps of the Army of the United States at the end of World War II, he trained in virus research at The...
  
  , American research scientist and influenza
  Influenza
  Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
  
   vaccine expert (b. 1920
  1920 in science
  The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
  
  ).
• 26 February – Zhu Guangya
  Zhu Guangya
  Zhu Guangya was a renowned Chinese nuclear physicist, and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences...
  
  , Chinese nuclear physicist, helped develop China's first atomic bomb (b. 1924
  1924 in science
  The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
  
  ).

March

• 1 March – John M. Lounge
  John M. Lounge
  John Michael "Mike" Lounge was an American engineer, a US Navy officer, a Vietnam war veteran, and a NASA astronaut. A veteran of three space shuttle flights, Lounge logged over 482 hours in space...
  
  , American astronaut (b. 1946
  1946 in science
  The year 1946 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* November 10 - Peter Scott opens the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve in England.* Karl von Frisch publishes "Die Tänze der Bienen" ....
  
  ).
• 3 March
  • Venkatraman Radhakrishnan
    Venkatraman Radhakrishnan
    Venkatraman Radhakrishnan was an internationally renowned space scientist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was Professor Emeritus of the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, where he had been Director from 1972 to 1994.Professor Radhakrishnan was born in Tondaripet,...
    
    , Indian astronomer (b. 1929
    1929 in science
    The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
    
    ).
  • James L. Elliot
    James L. Elliot
    James Ludlow Elliot was an American astronomer and scientist who, as part of a team, discovered the rings around the planet Uranus. Elliot was also part of a team that observed global warming on Triton, the largest moon of Neptune....
    
    , American astronomer, discoverer of the rings of Uranus (b. 1943
    1943 in science
    The year 1943 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Living specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the Dawn Redwood, previously known only as a Mesozoic fossil, are located in China....
    
    ).
• 4 March
  • Simon van der Meer
    Simon van der Meer
    Simon van der Meer was a Dutch particle accelerator physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Carlo Rubbia for contributions to the CERN project which led to the discovery of the W and Z particles, two of the most fundamental constituents of matter.-Biography:One of four...
    
    , Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1925
    1925 in science
    The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
    
    ).
  • Chester Kahapea
    Chester Kahapea
    Chester Frank Kahapea was an American soil scientist, technician and former paperboy. Kahapea became a symbol of the Hawaiian statehood after an iconic photo of him appeared in newspapers around the United States holding a special edition copy of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin headlined "Statehood."...
    
    , American soil scientist, known as the "face of Hawaiian statehood" (b. 1945
    1945 in science
    The year 1945 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Salvador Edward Luria and Alfred Day Hershey independently recognize that viruses undergo mutations.-Chemistry:...
    
    ).
  • Alenush Terian
    Alenush Terian
    Ālenush Teriān was the first Iranian female astronomer and physicist. She was born to an Armenian family in Tehran, Iran....
    
     Armenian-Iranian astronomer and physicist (b. 1920
    1920 in science
    The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
    
    ).
• 5 March – Alberto Granado
  Alberto Granado
  Alberto Granado was an Argentine–Cuban biochemist, doctor, writer, and scientist. He was also the youthful friend and traveling companion of revolutionary Che Guevara during their 1952 trip around Latin America, and later founded the Santiago School of Medicine in Cuba...
  
  , Argentine founder of the Santiago School of Medicine (b. 1922
  1922 in science
  The year 1922 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 6 March – Marie-Andrée Bertrand
  Marie-Andrée Bertrand
  Marie-Andrée Bertrand was a French-Canadian criminologist, a feminist and anti-prohibitionist.- Biography :Bertrand started her career as a social worker for female offenders, mainly prostitutes. In 1963, she received a Masters degree from the Université de Montréal...
  
  , Canadian criminologist (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 8 March
  • Victor Manuel Blanco
    Victor Manuel Blanco
    Dr. Víctor Manuel Blanco, PhD, was a Puerto Rican astronomer who in 1959 discovered "Blanco 1," a galactic cluster. Blanco was the second Director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, which had the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere at the time. In 1995, the telescope...
    
    , Puerto Rican astronomer (b. 1918
    1918 in science
    The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
    
    ).
  • Iraj Afshar
    Iraj Afshar
    Iraj Afshar was a bibliographer, historian, and an iconic figure in the field of Persian studies . He was a consulting editor of Encyclopædia Iranica at Columbia University and a full professor emeritus of University of Tehran.Iraj Afshar recorded the monuments of Yazd in his three-volume...
    
    , Iranian scholar and bibliographer (b. 1925
    1925 in science
    The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
    
    ).
• 11 March – Donny George Youkhanna
  Donny George Youkhanna
  Donny George Youkhanna , was an Iraqi Assyrian archaeologist, anthropologist, author, curator, and scholar, and a visiting professor at Stony Brook University in New York, internationally known as "the man who saved the Iraqi National Museum."-Biography:Youkhanna was born in Habbaniyah, Iraq in...
  
  , Iraqi archaeologist and anthropologist (b. 1950
  1950 in science
  The year 1950 in science and technology included some significant events.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Dutch astronomer Jan Oort postulates the existence of an orbiting cloud of planets at the outermost edge of the Solar System....
  
  ).
• 13 March – David Rumelhart
  David Rumelhart
  David Everett Rumelhart was an American psychologist who made many contributions to the formal analysis of human cognition, working primarily within the frameworks of mathematical psychology, symbolic artificial intelligence, and parallel distributed processing...
  
  , American applied psychologist (b. 1942
  1942 in science
  The year 1942 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* February 27 - James Stanley Hey, a British Army research officer, first detects radio waves emitted by the sun, helping to pioneer radio astronomy....
  
  ).
• 14 March
  • Leslie Collier
    Leslie Collier
    Leslie Harold Collier was a scientist responsible for developing a freeze-drying method to produce a more heat stable smallpox vaccine in the late 1940s....
    
    , British virologist (b. 1921
    1921 in science
    The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
    
    ).
  • G. Alan Marlatt, American addiction medicine pioneer (b. 1941
    1941 in science
    The year 1941 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum publish "Genetic Control of Biochemical Reactions in Neurospora" which shows that specific genes code for specific proteins.-Chemistry:* February 23 -...
    
    ).
• 17 March – Murdoch Mitchison
  Murdoch Mitchison
  John Murdoch Mitchison FRS, FRSE was a British zoologist, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . The biologist J.B.S. Haldane was his uncle, and the physiologist John Scott Haldane was his maternal grandfather...
  
  , British biologist (b. 1917
  1917 in science
  The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
  
  ).
• 19 March – Robert Ross, physician and educator, founder of the Ross University School of Medicine
  Ross University School of Medicine
  Ross University School of Medicine is a private Caribbean medical school with campuses in Picard, Dominica, and Grand Bahama. A majority of the students who attend the school are from the United States and Canada. The admissions process is less stringent than that of U.S. medical schools; Ross...
  
   and the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (b. 1918
  1918 in science
  The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
  
  ).
• 21 March – Bohumil Fišer, Czech cardiologist and health minister (b. 1943
  1943 in science
  The year 1943 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Living specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the Dawn Redwood, previously known only as a Mesozoic fossil, are located in China....
  
  ).
• 23 March
  • Teodor Negoiţă
    Teodor Negoita
    Teodor Gheorghe Negoiţă was a polar region explorer. In 1995, he became the first Romanian explorer to reach the North Pole...
    
    , Romanian polar explorer and scientist (b. 1947
    1947 in science
    The year 1947 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Anthropology:* August 7 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa-wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 4300-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that...
    
    ).
  • Jean Bartik
    Jean Bartik
    Jean Bartik was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer.She was born Betty Jean Jennings in Gentry County, Missouri, in 1924 and attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, majoring in mathematics. In 1945, she was hired by the University of Pennsylvania to work for Army...
    
    , American mathematician and ENIAC
    ENIAC
    ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems....
    
     programmer (b. 1924
    1924 in science
    The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
    
    ).
• 25 March – Thomas Eisner
  Thomas Eisner
  Thomas Eisner was a German-American entomologist and ecologist, known as the "father of chemical ecology."He was a Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology at Cornell University, and Director of the Cornell Institute for Research in Chemical Ecology...
  
  , German-American entomologist and pioneer of chemical ecology
  Chemical ecology
  Chemical ecology is the study of the chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms. It focuses on the production of and response to signaling molecules and toxins. Chemical ecology is of particular importance among ants and other social insects – including bees, wasps, and termites –...
  
   (b. 1929
  1929 in science
  The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
  
  ).
• 26 March
  • Paul Baran
    Paul Baran
    Paul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
    
    , Polish Internet pioneer (b. 1926
    1926 in science
    The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
    
    ).
  • Harry Coover
    Harry Coover
    Harry Wesley Coover, Jr. was the inventor of Eastman 910, commonly known as Super Glue.-Life and career:Coover was born in Newark, Delaware, and received his Bachelor of Science from Hobart College before earning his Master of Science and Ph. D. from Cornell University...
    
    , American superglue inventor (b. 1917
    1917 in science
    The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
    
    ).

April

• 2 April – John C. Haas
  John C. Haas
  John Charles Haas was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of global chemical company Rohm and Haas from 1974 to 1978. He was the son of the company's co-founder Otto Haas. John Haas died of natural causes on April 2, 2011, at the age of 92.-External links:* bio at Rohm...
  
  , American chemical engineer (b. 1918
  1918 in science
  The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
  
  ).
• 3 April – William Prusoff
  William Prusoff
  William Herman Prusoff was a pharmacologist who was an early innovator in antiviral drugs, developing idoxuridine, the first antiviral agent approved by the FDA, in the 1950s, and co-developing stavudine, one of the earliest AIDS drugs, in the mid-1980s.-References:...
  
  , American pharmacologist and early AIDS
  AIDS
  Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
  
   drug pioneer (b. 1920
  1920 in science
  The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
  
  ).
• 5 April – Baruch Samuel Blumberg
  Baruch Samuel Blumberg
  Baruch Samuel "Barry" Blumberg was an American doctor and co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine , and the President of the American Philosophical Society from 2005 until his death.Blumberg received the Nobel Prize for "discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin...
  
  , American physician and Nobel laureate (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 6 April – F. Gordon A. Stone
  F. Gordon A. Stone
  Francis Gordon Albert Stone CBE, FRS, FRSC was an English chemist who was a prolific and decorated scholar. He specialized in the synthesis of main group and transition metal organometallic compounds. He received his B.A. in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1951, both from Cambridge University, England, where...
  
  , American chemist (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 9 April – Jerry Lawson (engineer)
  Jerry Lawson (engineer)
  Gerald Anderson "Jerry" Lawson was an American electronic engineer known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console....
  
  , American video game pioneer (b. 1940
  1940 in science
  The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biochemistry:* August 24 - Howard Florey and a team including Ernst Chain, Arthur Duncan Gardner, Norman Heatley, M. Jennings, J. Orr-Ewing and G...
  
  ).
• 12 April – Jānis Polis
  Jānis Polis
  Jānis Polis , was a Soviet and Latvian pharmacologist and the developer of one of the first methods of synthesis of rimantadine, which was discovered in 1963 by William W. Prichard of Du Pont & Co. He was born in Eleja parish, Latvia. On 6 February 2009 Polis was awarded the WIPO Award for...
  
  , Latvian pharmacologist (b. 1938
  1938 in science
  The year 1938 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:*June 28 - A 450-ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 14 April – William Lipscomb
  William Lipscomb
  William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr. was a Nobel Prize-winning American inorganic and organic chemist working in nuclear magnetic resonance, theoretical chemistry, boron chemistry, and biochemistry.-Overview:...
  
  , American chemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 21 April
  • Harold Garfinkel
    Harold Garfinkel
    Harold Garfinkel was a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known for establishing and developing ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociology.-Biography:...
    
    , American sociologist and pioneer of ethnomethodology
    Ethnomethodology
    Ethnomethodology is an ethnographic approach to sociological inquiry introduced by the American sociologist Harold Garfinkel . Ethnomethodology's research interest is the study of the everyday methods people use for the production of social order...
    
     (b. 1917
    1917 in science
    The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
    
    ).
  • Max Mathews
    Max Mathews
    Max Vernon Mathews was a pioneer in the world of computer music.-Biography:...
    
    , American electrical engineer who arranged the synthesized musical accompaniment for "Daisy Bell
    Daisy Bell
    "Daisy Bell" is a popular song with the well-known chorus "Daisy, Daisy/Give me your answer do/I'm half crazy/all for the love of you" as well as the line "...a bicycle built for two".-History:"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892...
    
    " (b. 1926
    1926 in science
    The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
    
    ).
• 22 April – Merle Greene Robertson
  Merle Greene Robertson
  Merle Greene Robertson was an American artist, art historian, archaeologist, lecturer and Mayanist researcher, renowned for her extensive work towards the investigation and preservation of the art, iconography and writing of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Central America.-Early...
  
  , American archaeologist whose drawings were used to crack the Maya script
  Maya script
  The Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs or Maya hieroglyphs, is the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered...
  
   (b. 1913
  1913 in science
  The year 1913 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Protactinium is first identified by Kasimir Fajans and O. H...
  
  ).
• 30 April – Daniel Quillen, American mathematician (b. 1940
  1940 in science
  The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biochemistry:* August 24 - Howard Florey and a team including Ernst Chain, Arthur Duncan Gardner, Norman Heatley, M. Jennings, J. Orr-Ewing and G...
  
  ).

May

• 1 May
  • Steven A. Orszag
    Steven A. Orszag
    Steven Alan Orszag was an American mathematician. He was the Percey F. Smith Professor of Mathematics at Yale University from 2000 until his death in 2011, having joined the Yale faculty in 1998. Earlier, he was the Forrest E...
    
    , American mathematician (b. 1943
    1943 in science
    The year 1943 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Living specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the Dawn Redwood, previously known only as a Mesozoic fossil, are located in China....
    
    ).
  • J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr.
    J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr.
    Jesse Ernest Wilkins, Jr. was an African American mathematician and nuclear scientist, who gained first fame on entering the University of Chicago at age 13, becoming its youngest ever student...
    
    , American nuclear physicist (b. 1923
    1923 in science
    The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
    
    ).
• 2 May – David Sencer
  David Sencer
  David Judson Sencer was an American public health official who orchestrated the 1976 immunization program against swine flu. Between 1966 and 1977, he was the longest serving director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
  
  , American physician and former director of the CDC
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
  
   (b. 1924
  1924 in science
  The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
  
  ).
• 3 May – Robert Brout
  Robert Brout
  Robert Brout was an American-Belgian theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions in elementary particle physics...
  
  , American-born Belgian physicist (b. 1928
  1928 in science
  The year 1928 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* January - Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA....
  
  ).
• 5 May
  • Leslie Audus
    Leslie Audus
    Leslie John Audus was a British botanist and Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve survivor of the Japanese internment camps of World War II. He cultured yeast to feed and save the lives of his fellow POW's...
    
    , British botanist (b. 1911
    1911 in science
    The year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.-Exploration:...
    
    ).
  • Salomón Hakim
    Salomón Hakim
    Salomón Hakim Dow was a Colombian neurosurgeon, researcher, and inventor. A descendent of Lebanese immigrants, he is known for his work on neurosurgery and for the precursor of the modern valve treatment for hydrocephalus....
    
    , Colombian physician (b. 1929
    1929 in science
    The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
    
    ).
• 6 May – Horace Freeland Judson
  Horace Freeland Judson
  Horace Freeland Judson was a historian of molecular biology and the author of several books, including The Eighth Day of Creation, a history of molecular biology, and The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science, an examination of the deliberate manipulation of scientific data.-Life and career:The Eighth...
  
  , American science historian (b. 1931
  1931 in science
  The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* January - Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik.-Technology:...
  
  ).
• 7 May – Willard Boyle
  Willard Boyle
  Willard Sterling Boyle, was a Canadian physicist and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. On October 6, 2009, it was announced that he would share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit—the CCD sensor".-Life:Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, he...
  
  , Canadian physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1924
  1924 in science
  The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
  
  ).
• 8 May – Corwin Hansch
  Corwin Hansch
  Corwin Herman Hansch was a Professor of Chemistry at Pomona College in California. He became known as the 'father of computer-assisted molecule design.'-Early Life and Childhood:...
  
  , American chemist (b. 1918
  1918 in science
  The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
  
  ).
• 9 May – Henry Feffer
  Henry Feffer
  Henry Leon Feffer of Bethesda, Maryland, was an American neurosurgeon. In the mid-1950s, he was one of the first doctors to systematically test whether low-back pain could be relieved with epidural injections of hydrocortisone. Today, physicians routinely give such injections before resorting to...
  
  , American surgeon (b. 1918
  1918 in science
  The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
  
  ).
• 11 May – Maurice Goldhaber
  Maurice Goldhaber
  Maurice Goldhaber was an Austrian-born American physicist, who in 1957 established that neutrinos have negative helicity.-Early Life and Childhood:...
  
  , Austrian-born American physicist (b. 1911
  1911 in science
  The year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.-Exploration:...
  
  ).
• 12 May
  • Noreen Murray, British molecular geneticist (b. 1935
    1935 in science
    The year 1935 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Geology:* Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg develop the Richter magnitude scale for quantifying earthquakes.-History of science:...
    
    ).
  • Jack Keil Wolf
    Jack Keil Wolf
    Jack Keil Wolf was an American researcher in information theory and coding theory.-Biography:Wolf was born in 1935 in Newark, New Jersey, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1956 and his Ph.D...
    
    , American electrical engineer (b. 1935
    1935 in science
    The year 1935 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Geology:* Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg develop the Richter magnitude scale for quantifying earthquakes.-History of science:...
    
    ).
• 19 May
  • David H. Kelley
    David H. Kelley
    David Humiston Kelley was a Canadian American archaeologist and epigrapher, most noted for his work on the phonetic analysis and major contributions toward the decipherment of the writing system used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the Maya script.-Work and interests:From...
    
    , American-born Canadian archaeologist (b. 1924
    1924 in science
    The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
    
    ).
  • Tom West
    Tom West
    Joseph Thomas "Tom" West III was the protagonist of the Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction book The Soul of a New Machine. West worked for Data General Corporation as a hardware engineer and vice president, retiring as Chief Technologist in 1998. West died at the age of 71 in his Westport,...
    
    , American computer engineer (b. 1939
    1939 in science
    The year 1939 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Robert Oppenheimer jointly predicts two new types of celestial object:** With George Volkoff he calculates the structure of neutron stars....
    
    ).
• 20 May – Steve Rutt
  Steve Rutt
  Steven Alexander Rutt was a American engineer who in 1972, along with Bill Etra co-created an early video animation synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra synthesizer...
  
  , American engineer and early pioneer of video animation (b. 1945
  1945 in science
  The year 1945 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* Salvador Edward Luria and Alfred Day Hershey independently recognize that viruses undergo mutations.-Chemistry:...
  
  ).
• 26 May – Irwin D. Mandel
  Irwin D. Mandel
  Irwin D. Mandel was an American biochemist and dentist who was known for his reaearch on the biochemistry of saliva. He was a founder of the preventive dentistry movement and established the first department of preventive dentistry at an American university, the Columbia University College of...
  
  , American dentist (b. 1922
  1922 in science
  The year 1922 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 28 May
  • Leo Rangell
    Leo Rangell
    Leo Rangell was an American psychoanalyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California. He was also twice president of the International Psychoanalytical Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association, and was accorded the title "Honorary President" in 1997...
    
    , American psychiatrist (b. 1913
    1913 in science
    The year 1913 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Protactinium is first identified by Kasimir Fajans and O. H...
    
    ).
  • John H. Sinfelt
    John H. Sinfelt
    John H. Sinfelt was an American chemical engineer whose research on catalytic reforming was responsible for the introduction of unleaded gasoline.Sinfelt was working for the Standard Oil Development Company , where he specialized in developing...
    
    , American chemical engineer in unleaded gasoline (b. 1931
    1931 in science
    The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* January - Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik.-Technology:...
    
    ).
• 30 May – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
  Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
  Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for development of the radioimmunoassay technique...
  
  , American physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine (b. 1921
  1921 in science
  The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
  
  ).

June

• 3 June – Jack Kevorkian
  Jack Kevorkian
  Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian , commonly known as "Dr. Death", was an American pathologist, euthanasia activist, painter, composer and instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he said he assisted at least 130 patients to...
  
  , American pathologist, advocate of euthanasia
  Euthanasia
  Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
  
   (b. 1928
  1928 in science
  The year 1928 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* January - Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA....
  
  ).
• 8 June – Anatole Abragam
  Anatole Abragam
  Anatole Abragam was a French physicist who wrote The Principles of Nuclear Magnetism and has made significant contributions to the field of nuclear magnetic resonance. Originally from Russia, Abragam and his family emigrated to France in 1925.After being educated at the University of Paris, , he...
  
  , Russian-born French physicist (b. 1914
  1914 in science
  The year 1914 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* Sinope, the outermost known moon of Jupiter, is discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson at Lick Observatory....
  
  ).
• 11 June – James Rahal, Jr., American physician, West Nile virus
  West Nile virus
  West Nile virus is a virus of the family Flaviviridae. Part of the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is known to infect humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic...
  
   expert (b. 1933
  1933 in science
  The year 1933 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky invent the concept of neutron star, a new type of celestial object, suggesting that supernovae might be created by the collapse of a normal star to form a neutron...
  
  ).
• 16 June – Östen Mäkitalo
  Östen Mäkitalo
  Östen Mäkitalo was a Swedish electrical engineer. He is considered to be the father of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system and many times the father of cellular phone.-Education and occupation:...
  
  , Swedish electrical engineer, cell phone inventor (b. 1938
  1938 in science
  The year 1938 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:*June 28 - A 450-ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 17 June – Nathan Sharon
  Nathan Sharon
  -Biography:Sharon was born in 1925 in Brest-Litovsk, then in Poland . He emigrated to Mandate Palestine with his family in 1934 and settled in Tel Aviv...
  
  , Israeli biochemist (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 18 June – Bob Pease
  Bob Pease
  Robert Allen Pease was an analog integrated circuit design expert and technical author. He designed several very successful "best-seller" integrated circuits, many of them in continuous production for multiple decades...
  
  , American electrical engineer (b. 1940
  1940 in science
  The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biochemistry:* August 24 - Howard Florey and a team including Ernst Chain, Arthur Duncan Gardner, Norman Heatley, M. Jennings, J. Orr-Ewing and G...
  
  ).
• 20 June – Robert H. Widmer, American aeronautical engineer (b. 1916
  1916 in science
  The year 1916 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir formulate an electron shell model of chemical bonding....
  
  ).
• 23 June – Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
  Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
  Christiane Desroches Noblecourt was a French Egyptologist. She was the author of many books on Egyptian art and history and was also known for her role in the preservation of the Nubian temples from flooding caused by the Aswan Dam.-Background:She was born Christiane Desroches on November 17...
  
  , French Egyptologist (b. 1913
  1913 in science
  The year 1913 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Protactinium is first identified by Kasimir Fajans and O. H...
  
  ).
• 26 June – Robert Morris
  Robert Morris (cryptographer)
  Robert Morris , was an American cryptographer and computer scientist. -Family and Education:Morris was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Walter W. Morris, a salesman, and Helen Kelly Morris...
  
  , American cryptographer (b. 1932
  1932 in science
  The year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System.-Biology:* Geneticist J. B. S...
  
  ).

July

• 7 July – Ricardo Alegría
  Ricardo Alegría
  Ricardo Alegría was a Puerto Rican scholar, cultural anthropologist and archeologist known as the "Father of Modern Puerto Rican Archaeology".-Early years:...
  
  , Puerto Rican anthropologist and archeologist (b. 1921
  1921 in science
  The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
  
  ).
• 8 July – William R. Corliss
  William R. Corliss
  William Roger Corliss was an American physicist and writer who was known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomalous phenomena. Arthur C. Clarke described him as "Fort's latter-day - and much more scientific - successor."-Biography:Starting in 1974, Corliss published a number of works...
  
  , American physicist (b. 1926
  1926 in science
  The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
  
  ).
• 11 July – Tom Gehrels
  Tom Gehrels
  Tom Gehrels , was an American astronomer, Professor Planetary Sciences, and Astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson....
  
  , Dutch-born American astronomer (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 15 July – John S. Toll
  John S. Toll
  John Sampson Toll was an American physicist and educational administrator.Toll received his bachelor's degree in physics from Yale in 1944, after which he served in the Navy in World War II. He finished his Ph.D...
  
  , American physicist and university chancellor (b. 1923
  1923 in science
  The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
  
  ).
• 16 July – John Crook
  John Crook
  John Hurrell Crook, BSc, PhD, DSc , was a British ethologist who filled a pivotal role in British primatology....
  
  , British ethologist (b. 1930
  1930 in science
  The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 18 - Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.* Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.-Atmospheric chemistry:...
  
  ).
• 18 July – Rudiger D. Haugwitz, German-born American chemist (b. 1932
  1932 in science
  The year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System.-Biology:* Geneticist J. B. S...
  
  ).
• 21 July
  • Franz Alt
    Franz Alt
    Franz Leopold Alt was an Austrian-born American mathematician who made major contributions to computer science in its early days...
    
    , Austrian-born American mathematician (b. 1910
    1910 in science
    The year 1910 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Albert Einstein and Marian Smoluchowski find the Einstein-Smoluchowski formula for the attenuation coefficient due to density fluctuations in a gas...
    
    ).
  • Harold J. Kosasky, Canadian-born American physician (b. c. 1928
    1928 in science
    The year 1928 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* January - Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA....
    
    ).
• 23 July
  • Robert Ettinger
    Robert Ettinger
    Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger was an American academic, known as "the father of cryonics" because of the impact of his 1962 book The Prospect of Immortality...
    
    , American academic, known as "the father of cryonics
    Cryonics
    Cryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
    
    " and a pioneer of transhumanism
    Transhumanism
    Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
    
     (b. 1918
    1918 in science
    The year 1918 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Kiyotsugu Hirayama identifies several groups of main belt asteroids, now known as Hirayama families....
    
    ).
  • Richard Pike
    Richard Pike
    Richard Andrew Pike was the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2006 - 2011.-Education:He attended Gosport County Grammar School . From Downing College, Cambridge he gained a 1st Class BA in Engineering in 1971, and later in 1977 gained a PhD...
    
    , British chemist (b. 1950
    1950 in science
    The year 1950 in science and technology included some significant events.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Dutch astronomer Jan Oort postulates the existence of an orbiting cloud of planets at the outermost edge of the Solar System....
    
    ).
• 27 July – John Rawlins, British Surgeon Vice Admiral (b. 1922
  1922 in science
  The year 1922 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 28 July – Max Harry Weil, Swiss-born American physician (b. 1927
  1927 in science
  The year 1927 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* Publication of the 2nd edition of Principia Mathematica by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.-Physics:*...
  
  ).
• 30 July – Daniel D. McCracken
  Daniel D. McCracken
  Daniel D. McCracken was a computer scientist in the United States. He was a Professor of Computer Sciences at the City College of New York, and the author of over two dozen textbooks on computer programming. His A Guide to Fortran Programming and its successors were the standard textbooks on...
  
  , American computer scientist (b. 1930
  1930 in science
  The year 1930 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* February 18 - Pluto is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.* Bernhard Schmidt invents the Schmidt Camera.-Atmospheric chemistry:...
  
  ).

August

• 2 August – Baruj Benacerraf
  Baruj Benacerraf
  Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-born American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and...
  
  , Venezuelan-born American immunologist and Nobel laureate (b. 1920
  1920 in science
  The year 1920 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-History of science and technology:* Newcomen Society founded in the United Kingdom for the study of the history of engineering and technology.-Medicine:...
  
  ).
• 6 August – Bernadine Healy
  Bernadine Healy
  Bernadine Patricia Healy was an American physician, cardiologist, academic and a former head of the National Institutes of Health . She was a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, professor and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at the Ohio State University, and served...
  
  , American physician (b. 1944
  1944 in science
  The year 1944 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:*Hendrik van de Hulst predicts the 21 cm hyperfine line of neutral interstellar hydrogen.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 7 August
  • Charles C. Edwards, American physician (b. 1923
    1923 in science
    The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
    
    ).
  • Paul Meier
    Paul Meier (statistician)
    Paul Meier was a statistician who promoted the use of randomized trials in medicine. He is also known for introducing, with Edward L. Kaplan, the Kaplan–Meier estimator, a tool for measuring how many patients survive a medical treatment.-External links:...
    
    , American mathematician (b. 1924
    1924 in science
    The year 1924 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* December 30 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies....
    
    ).
• 11 August – George Devol
  George Devol
  George Charles Devol, Jr. was an American inventor who was awarded the patent for Unimate, the first industrial robot. Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represented the foundation of the modern robotics industry.As an inventor he had over 40 patents and was...
  
  , American and first industrial robot
  Unimate
  Unimate was the first industrial robot,which worked on a General Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961.It was created by George Devol in the 1950s using his original patents...
  
   inventor (b. 1912
  1912 in science
  The year 1912 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 23 - Horace Donisthorpe first discovers Anergates atratulus in the New Forest, England.-Chemistry:...
  
  ).
• 14 August – Fritz H. Bach, Austrian-born American physician (b. 1934
  1934 in science
  The year 1934 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Richard Tolman shows that black-body radiation in an expanding universe cools but remains thermal....
  
  ).
• 18 August – Maurice M. Rapport
  Maurice M. Rapport
  Maurice M. Rapport was leading biochemist who described the structure of serotonin...
  
  , American neuroscience biochemist (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 20 August
  • William B. Kannel, American physician (b. 1923
    1923 in science
    The year 1923 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Aeronautics:* Juan de la Cierva invents the autogyro, a rotary-winged aircraft with an unpowered rotor.-Astronomy:...
    
    ).
  • William I. Wolff, American physician and colonoscopy
    Colonoscopy
    Colonoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the large bowel and the distal part of the small bowel with a CCD camera or a fiber optic camera on a flexible tube passed through the anus. It may provide a visual diagnosis and grants the opportunity for biopsy or removal of suspected...
    
     co-developer (b. 1916
    1916 in science
    The year 1916 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir formulate an electron shell model of chemical bonding....
    
    ).
• 26 August – Patrick C. Fischer
  Patrick C. Fischer
  Patrick Carl Fischer was an American computer scientist, a noted researcher in computational complexity theory and database theory, and a target of the Unabomber.-Biography:...
  
  , American computer scientist and Unabomber target (b. 1935
  1935 in science
  The year 1935 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Geology:* Charles Richter and Beno Gutenberg develop the Richter magnitude scale for quantifying earthquakes.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 27 August – Keith Tantlinger
  Keith Tantlinger
  Keith Walton Tantlinger was a mechanical engineer and inventor whose inventions played a major role in globalization. Working with Malcom McLean, who spearheaded the container ship revolution in the 1950s, Tantlinger developed much of the early technology that made modern container shipping...
  
  , American mechanical engineer (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 28 August – Tony Sale, British computer museum curator (b. 1931
  1931 in science
  The year 1931 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* January - Kurt Gödel's "On Formally Undecidable Propositions..." is published in Monatshefte für Mathematik.-Technology:...
  
  ).
• 29 August – Pauline Morrow Austin
  Pauline Morrow Austin
  Pauline Morrow Austin is an American meteorologist.Austin received a BA from Wilson College in 1938, an MA from Smith College in 1939, and a PhD in Physics from MIT in 1942....
  
  , American meteorologist (b. 1916
  1916 in science
  The year 1916 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir formulate an electron shell model of chemical bonding....
  
  ).

September

• 5 September – Angioletta Coradini
  Angioletta Coradini
  Dr. Angioletta Coradini was an Italian astrophysicist, planetary scientist and one of the most important figures in the space sciences in Italy.-Biography:...
  
  , Italian astrophysicist (b. 1946
  1946 in science
  The year 1946 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* November 10 - Peter Scott opens the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve in England.* Karl von Frisch publishes "Die Tänze der Bienen" ....
  
  ).
• 6 September – Bruce B. Dan, American physician (b. 1946
  1946 in science
  The year 1946 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* November 10 - Peter Scott opens the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve in England.* Karl von Frisch publishes "Die Tänze der Bienen" ....
  
  ).
• 9 September – Valentino Braitenberg
  Valentino Braitenberg
  Valentino Braitenberg is an Italian neuroscientist and cyberneticist...
  
  , Italian neuroscientist and cyberneticist (b. 1926
  1926 in science
  The year 1926 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* March 16 - Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.-Paleontology:...
  
  ).
• 14 September – Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1929
  1929 in science
  The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
  
  ).
• 16 September – William Hawthorne
  William Hawthorne
  Sir William R. Hawthorne CBE, FRS, FREng, FIMECHE, FRAES, was a British professor of engineering who worked on the development of the jet engine....
  
  , British aeronautical engineer (b. 1913
  1913 in science
  The year 1913 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Protactinium is first identified by Kasimir Fajans and O. H...
  
  ).
• 17 September – Julius Blank
  Julius Blank
  Julius Blank was a semiconductor pioneer and a member of the so-called Traitorous Eight associated with Nobel-winning physicist William Shockley....
  
  , American mechanical engineer (b. 1925
  1925 in science
  The year 1925 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T...
  
  ).
• 20 September – Oscar Handlin
  Oscar Handlin
  Oscar Handlin was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history...
  
  , American historian (b. 1915
  1915 in science
  The year 1915 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Pluto is photographed for the first time but not recognized as a planet....
  
  ).
• 21 September – Michael Julian Drake
  Michael Julian Drake
  Michael Julian Drake , Regent’s Professor, was the Director of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and head of the Department of Planetary Science. He was the principal investigator of the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer ...
  
  , American astronomer (b. 1946
  1946 in science
  The year 1946 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* November 10 - Peter Scott opens the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve in England.* Karl von Frisch publishes "Die Tänze der Bienen" ....
  
  ).
• 22 September – Margaret Ogola
  Margaret Ogola
  Margaret Atieno Ogola was the celebrated Kenyan author of the novel The River and the Source, and its sequel, I Swear by Apollo. The River and the Source follows four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly changing country and society...
  
  , Kenyan physician (b. 1958
  1958 in science
  The year 1958 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Events:* During International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered; and the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition discovers the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range in Antarctica.-Astronomy and space...
  
  ).
• 23 September – Carl Wood
  Carl Wood
  Edwin Carlyle "Carl" Wood, AC, CBE, FRCS, FRANZCOG was a prominent Australian gynaecologist, best known for his pioneering work developing and commercialising the technique of in-vitro fertilisation...
  
  , Australian physician (b. 1929
  1929 in science
  The year 1929 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space exploration:* July 17 - Robert H...
  
  ).
• 24 September – Richard Koch, American physician, advocate for phenylketonuria
  Phenylketonuria
  Phenylketonuria is an autosomal recessive metabolic genetic disorder characterized by a mutation in the gene for the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase , rendering it nonfunctional. This enzyme is necessary to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine...
  
   neonate screening (b. 1921
  1921 in science
  The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Thomas Midgley discovers the effective anti-knocking properties of Tetra-ethyl lead, which is used in "leaded" gasoline .-Mathematics:...
  
  ).
• 25 September – Wangari Maathai
  Wangari Maathai
  Wangari Muta Mary Jo Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya...
  
  , Kenyan veterinary anatomist and Nobel Peace Prize
  Nobel Peace Prize
  The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
  
   winner (b. 1940
  1940 in science
  The year 1940 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biochemistry:* August 24 - Howard Florey and a team including Ernst Chain, Arthur Duncan Gardner, Norman Heatley, M. Jennings, J. Orr-Ewing and G...
  
  ).
• 26 September – Robert Blinc
  Robert Blinc
  Robert Blinc was a prominent Slovene physicist.He completed his undergraduate studies in 1958 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Ljubljana and received a PhD a year later. He then started post-doc study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When he returned to Slovenia, he continued his...
  
  , Slovene physicist (b. 1933
  1933 in science
  The year 1933 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky invent the concept of neutron star, a new type of celestial object, suggesting that supernovae might be created by the collapse of a normal star to form a neutron...
  
  ).
• 27 September – Wilson Greatbatch
  Wilson Greatbatch
  Wilson Greatbatch was an American engineer and inventor whois most widely known as the inventor of the implantable cardiac pacemaker...
  
  , American electrical engineer and the inventor of the implantable cardiac pacemaker (b. 1919
  1919 in science
  The year 1919 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* June 1 - The term covalence in relation to chemical bonding models is first used by Irving Langmuir.-History of science:...
  
  ).
• 28 September – Pierre Dansereau
  Pierre Dansereau
  Pierre Dansereau, was a Canadian ecologist known as one of the "fathers of ecology".-Biography:...
  
  , Canadian biologist (b. 1911
  1911 in science
  The year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.-Exploration:...
  
  ).
• 30 September
  • Lee Davenport
    Lee Davenport
    Lee L. Davenport was an American physicist. He was a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory during World War II, responsible for the development and deployment of the SCR-584 radar system.-Early Life:...
    
    , American physicist (b. 1915
    1915 in science
    The year 1915 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Pluto is photographed for the first time but not recognized as a planet....
    
    ).
  • Ralph M. Steinman
    Ralph M. Steinman
    Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian immunologist and cell biologist at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 coined the term dendritic cells while working as a postdoc in the lab of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University....
    
    , Canadian immunologist and Nobel laureate (b. 1943
    1943 in science
    The year 1943 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* July 21 - Living specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the Dawn Redwood, previously known only as a Mesozoic fossil, are located in China....
    
    ).

October

• 3 October – Aden Meinel
  Aden Meinel
  Aden B. Meinel was an American astronomer. He retired in 1993 as a Distinguished Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also held the rank of Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences...
  
  , American astronomer
  Astronomer
  An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
  
   (b. 1922
  1922 in science
  The year 1922 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Archaeology:* November 4 - British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings of Egypt.-Biology:...
  
  ).
• 5 October – Steve Jobs
  Steve Jobs
  Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
  
  , American computer engineer and technology entrepreneur (b. 1955
  1955 in science
  The year 1955 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.-Astronomy:* January 8 - Penumbral lunar eclipse....
  
  ).
• 8 October – Milan Puskar
  Milan Puskar
  Milan "Mike" Puskar was an entrepreneur and philanthropist from Morgantown, West Virginia. He was born to Serbian parents....
  
  , American pharmaceutical executive (b. 1934
  1934 in science
  The year 1934 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Richard Tolman shows that black-body radiation in an expanding universe cools but remains thermal....
  
  ).
• 12 October – Dennis Ritchie
  Dennis Ritchie
  Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie , was an American computer scientist who "helped shape the digital era." He created the C programming language and, with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the UNIX operating system...
  
  , American computer scientist
  Computer scientist
  A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
  
   (b. 1941
  1941 in science
  The year 1941 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Biology:* George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum publish "Genetic Control of Biochemical Reactions in Neurospora" which shows that specific genes code for specific proteins.-Chemistry:* February 23 -...
  
  ).
• 23 October – Herbert A. Hauptman
  Herbert A. Hauptman
  Herbert Aaron Hauptman was an American mathematician and Nobel laureate. He pioneered and developed a mathematical method that has changed the whole field of chemistry and opened a new era in research in determination of molecular structures of crystallized materials...
  
  , American mathematical biophysicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  The 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,...
  
   (b. 1917
  1917 in science
  The year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
  
  ).
• 24 October – John McCarthy
  John McCarthy (computer scientist)
  John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...
  
  , American computer scientist
  Computer scientist
  A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
  
   and cognitive scientist (b. 1927
  1927 in science
  The year 1927 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Mathematics:* Publication of the 2nd edition of Principia Mathematica by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.-Physics:*...
  
  ).

November

• 4 November – Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr.
  Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr.
  Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. was an American physicist. A physics professor at Harvard University since 1947, Ramsey also held several posts with such government and international agencies as NATO and the United States Atomic Energy Commission...
  
  , American physicist and Nobel laureate whose work led to the atomic clock
  Atomic clock
  An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element...
  
    (b. 1915
  1915 in science
  The year 1915 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:* Pluto is photographed for the first time but not recognized as a planet....
  
  ).
• 22 November – Lynn Margulis
  Lynn Margulis
  Lynn Margulis was an American biologist and University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted...
  
  , American evolutionary biologist (b. 1938
  1938 in science
  The year 1938 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy:*June 28 - A 450-ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.-Biology:...
  
  ).

See also

• List of emerging technologies
• List of years in science
• 2011 in spaceflight
  2011 in spaceflight
  The year 2011 saw a number of significant events in spaceflight, including the retirement of the Space Shuttle after its final flight in July 2011 and the launch of China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, in September...