Editing 1985 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1985|science}}
{{Science year nav|1985}}

The year '''1985 in science''' and technology involved many significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 7 – [[Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]] launches ''[[Sakigake]]'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.

==Chemistry==
* The [[fullerene]] [[Buckminsterfullerene]] (C<sub>60</sub>) is first intentionally prepared by [[Harold Kroto]], [[James R. Heath]], Sean O'Brien, [[Robert Curl]] and [[Richard Smalley]] at [[Rice University]] in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1985|title=C<sub>60</sub>: Buckminsterfullerene|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=318|pages=162–163|doi=10.1038/318162a0|issue=6042|bibcode=1985Natur.318..162K|last1=Kroto|first1=H. W.|last2=Heath|first2=J. R.|last3=O'Brien|first3=S. C.|last4=Curl|first4=R. F.|last5=Smalley|first5=R. E.|s2cid=4314237 }}</ref>

==Computer science==
* March – The ''[[GNU Manifesto]]'', written by [[Richard Stallman]], is first published.
* March 15 – The first commercial [[Internet]] [[domain name]], in the [[top-level domain]] ''[[.com]]'', is registered in the name ''[[symbolics.com]]'' by [[Symbolics]] Inc., a computer systems firm in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].
* November 20 – [[Microsoft Windows]] [[operating system]] released.

==Environment==
* May 16 – Scientists of the [[British Antarctic Survey]] announce discovery of the [[Ozone depletion|ozone hole]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=978-0-14-102715-9|year=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Large losses of total ozone in Antarctica reveal seasonal ClO<sub>x</sub>/NO<sub>x</sub> interaction|pages=207–10|author=Farman, J. C.|author-link=Joe Farman|author2=Gardiner, B. G.|author2-link=Brian G. Gardiner (meteorologist)|author3=Shanklin, J. D.|author3-link=Jon Shanklin|journal=Nature|year=1985|doi=10.1038/315207a0|volume=315|issue=6016|bibcode=1985Natur.315..207F|s2cid=4346468 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1994.tb00419.x|first=Stephen C.|last=Zehr|title=Accounting for the Ozone Hole: Scientific Representations of an Anomaly and Prior Incorrect Claims in Public Settings|journal=The Sociological Quarterly|volume=35|issue=4|pages=603–19|year=1994|jstor=4121521}}</ref>

==Exploration==
* September 1 – [[The wreck of the RMS Titanic|The wreck of the RMS ''Titanic'']] ([[1912 in science|1912]]) in the [[North Atlantic]] is located by a joint American-French expedition led by Dr. [[Robert Ballard]] ([[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution|WHOI]]) and [[Jean-Louis Michel (oceanographer)|Jean-Louis Michel]] ([[Ifremer]]) using [[side-scan sonar]] from [[RV Knorr|RV ''Knorr'']].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Sept. 2, 1985: Hey, Everyone, We Found the ''Titanic''|first=Randy|last=Alfred|url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/09/dayintech_0902|date=2008-02-09|accessdate=2011-11-03|magazine=Wired}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=How We Found the ''Titanic''|first=Robert D.|last=Ballard|journal=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]] |volume=168|issue=6|pages=696–718 |date=December 1985}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* March – [[Louis de Branges de Bourcia]] publishes proof of [[de Branges's theorem]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=de Branges|first=Louis|title=A proof of the Bieberbach conjecture|doi=10.1007/BF02392821|mr=772434|year=1985|journal=[[Acta Mathematica]]|volume=154|issue=1|pages=137–152|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* September – [[Dennis Sullivan]] publishes proof of the [[No wandering domain theorem]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Dennis|last=Sullivan|s2cid=54186648|title=Quasiconformal homeomorphisms and dynamics I. Solution of the Fatou-Julia problem on wandering domains|journal=[[Annals of Mathematics]]|jstor=1971308|volume=122|year=1985|issue=2|pages=401–418|doi=10.2307/1971308 }}</ref>
* December – Publication of the ''[[ATLAS of Finite Groups]]''.
* [[Jean-Pierre Serre]] provides partial proof that a [[Frey curve]] cannot be [[Modular curve|modular]], showing that a proof of the semistable case of the [[Modularity theorem|Taniyama-Shimura conjecture]] would imply [[Fermat's Last Theorem]].
* [[Leonard Adleman]], [[Roger Heath-Brown]] and Étienne Fouvry prove that the first case of Fermat's Last Theorem holds for infinitely many odd primes ''p''.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Adleman L. M. |author2=Heath-Brown, D. R. |date=June 1985|title=The first case of Fermat's last theorem|journal= [[Inventiones Mathematicae]]|volume=79|issue=2|pages=409–416|publisher=Springer|location=Berlin|doi=10.1007/BF01388981|bibcode = 1985InMat..79..409A |s2cid=122537472 }}</ref>

==Physics==
* September – Physicist [[Carl Sagan]]'s [[hard science fiction]] novel ''[[Contact (novel)|Contact]]'' is published in the United States, introducing the concept of a traversable [[wormhole]] devised by [[Kip Thorne]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html|title=Contact – High Technology Lends a Hand/Science of the Soundstage|publisher=[[Warner Bros.]]|access-date=2014-09-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010304211755/http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html|archive-date=2001-03-04}}</ref>
* [[Portugal]] joins [[CERN]].

==Physiology and medicine==
* February 19 – [[Artificial heart]] patient [[William J. Schroeder]] becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.
* March 4 – The United States [[Food and Drug Administration]] approves a blood test for AIDS infection, used since this date for testing all U.S. [[blood donations]].
* March&ndash;May – [[Joshua Silver]] develops an adjustable [[corrective lens]].
* September 12 – German surgeon [[Erich Mühe]] performs the first [[laparoscopic]] [[cholecystectomy]].
* October 17 – The British [[House of Lords]] decides the legal case of ''Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health Authority''<ref>[http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1985/7.html [1985<nowiki>]</nowiki> 3 All ER 402] (HL).</ref> which sets the significant precedent of [[Gillick competence]], i.e. that a child of 16 or under may be competent to consent to [[contraception]] or &ndash; by extension &ndash; other medical treatment without requiring parental permission or knowledge.
* Publication of a classified bibliography of 3500 reports on [[controlled trials]] in [[perinatal]] medicine published since 1940.<ref>{{cite web|title=About the Cochrane Library|url=http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutTheCochraneLibrary.html#ABOUT|publisher=The [[Cochrane Library]]|accessdate=2011-01-25|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105124021/http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutTheCochraneLibrary.html#ABOUT|archivedate=2011-01-05|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[DNA]] is first used in a criminal case.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gaines|first=Larry|author2=Miller, LeRoy|title=Criminal Justice In Action: The Core|year=2006|publisher=[[Cengage|Thomson/Wadsworth]]|isbn=978-0-495-00305-2}}</ref>
* New York-based [[neurologist]] [[Oliver Sacks]] publishes ''[[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat]] and Other Clinical Tales''.

==Technology==
* January 1 – The first British [[mobile phone]] calls are made.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4138449.stm|title=Mobiles rack up 20 years of use|work=BBC News|accessdate=2008-01-29|date=2005-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30430475|title=UK's first mobile phone user remembers his call 30 years on|work=BBC News|accessdate=2005-01-01|date=2005-01-01}}</ref>
* February 20 – [[Minolta]] releases the [[Maxxum 7000]], the world's first [[autofocus]] [[single-lens reflex camera]].
* [[Atomic force microscope]] invented by Gerd Binnig, [[Calvin Quate]] and Christopher Berger.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Binnig, G. |author2=Quate, C. F. |author3=Berger, Ch. |title=Atomic Force Microscope|journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]|volume=56|issue=9|pages=930–933|date=1986-03-03|bibcode=1986PhRvL..56..930B|doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930|pmid=10033323|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Akira Yoshino]] develops a practical [[lithium-ion battery]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Klaus von Klitzing]] – for his discovery of the [[Quantization (physics)|quantization]] of [[electrical resistance]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Herbert A. Hauptman]], [[Jerome Karle]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Michael S. Brown]], [[Joseph L. Goldstein]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Richard Karp]] – for his work on [[computational complexity theory]]

==Births==
* August 26 – [[Hugo Duminil-Copin]], [[French people|French]] mathematician.<ref>{{cite web|first=Jordana|last=Cepelewicz|title=Hugo Duminil-Copin Wins the Fields Medal|work=Quanta Magazine|date=2022-07-05|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/hugo-duminil-copin-wins-the-fields-medal-20220705/|access-date=2022-07-05|archive-date=2022-07-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705073201/https://www.quantamagazine.org/hugo-duminil-copin-wins-the-fields-medal-20220705/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[John M. Jumper]], American computer scientist, winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].

==Deaths==
* March 10 – [[C. B. van Niel]] (b. [[1897 in science|1897]]), [[Dutch American]] [[microbiologist]].
* April 20 – [[Charles Richter]] (b. [[1900 in science|1900]]), American [[geophysicist]] and [[List of inventors|inventor]].
* July 20 – [[Bruno de Finetti]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), Italian [[statistician]].
* August 5 – [[Arnold Wilkins]] (b. [[1907 in science|1907]]), [[English people|English]] pioneer of [[radar]].
* August 31 – [[Frank Macfarlane Burnet]] (b. [[1899 in science|1899]]), Australian [[Virology|virologist]] best known for his contributions to [[immunology]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* September 6 – [[Rodney Robert Porter|Rodney Porter]] (b. [[1917 in science|1917]]), English [[biochemist]], winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
* September 7 – [[George Pólya]] (b. [[1887 in science|1887]]), Hungarian [[mathematician]].
* September 10 – [[Ernst Öpik]] (b. [[1893 in science|1893]]), Estonian [[astronomer]] and [[astrophysicist]].
* October 22 – [[Thomas Townsend Brown]] (b. [[1905 in science|1905]]), American inventor.
* November 24 – [[László Bíró]] (b. [[1899 in science|1899]]), Hungarian inventor.
* December 21 – [[Elliott Organick]] (b. [[1925 in science|1925]]), American computer scientist and educator
* c. December 26 – [[Dian Fossey]] (b. [[1932 in science|1932]]), American [[primatologist]] (murdered).

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1985 In Science}}
[[Category:1985 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1980s in science]]