Editing 1994 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1994|science}}
{{Science year nav|1994}}

The year '''1994 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved many significant events, listed below.

==Archaeology and paleontology==
* March 31 – The journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' reports the finding in [[Ethiopia]] of the first complete ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]'' skull, significant in the study of [[human evolution]].
* December 18 – [[Chauvet Cave]] discovered by Jean-Marie Chauvet and other [[speleology|speleologists]] near [[Vallon-Pont-d'Arc]] in the [[Ardèche]] department of southern [[France]], containing some of the earliest known [[cave painting]]s of animals, as well as other evidence of [[Upper Paleolithic]] life.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chauvet|first1=Jean-Marie|first2=Eliette Brunel|last2=Deschamps|first3=Christian|last3=Hillaire|title=Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave|year=1996|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8109-3232-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dawnofartchauvet0000chau}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Clottes|first=Jean|others=Paul G. Bahn (translator)|title=Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times|year=2003|publisher=University of Utah Press|location=Salt Lake City|isbn=978-0-87480-758-5|page=214}}</ref>
* The ''[[Australopithecus]]'' skeleton "[[Little Foot]]" is identified in South Africa.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 8 – ''[[Soyuz TM-18]]'': [[Valeri Polyakov]] begins his 437.7-day orbit of the [[Earth]], eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit.
* February 3 – Asteroid [[(136617) 1994 CC]] is discovered.
* February 21 – Revealing of the first photo of [[Pluto]] and its moon [[Charon (moon)|Charon]] taken from the [[Hubble Space Telescope]].
* July 16–22 – The fragments of [[Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9]] impact the planet [[Jupiter]].
* July 21 – R. Ibata, M. Irwin, and G. Gilmore discover the [[Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy]], a satellite galaxy of the [[Milky Way]], considered the closest galaxy to the Milky Way until 2003.<ref>{{cite journal|bibcode=1994Natur.370..194I|title=A dwarf satellite galaxy in Sagittarius|last1=Ibata|first1=R. A.|last2=Gilmore|first2=G.|last3=Irwin|first3=M. J.|volume=370|year=1994|pages=194–196|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/370194a0|issue=6486|s2cid=4335789 }}</ref>
* October 13 (UTC) – [[NASA]] loses radio contact with the [[Magellan (spacecraft)|''Magellan'' spacecraft]] after a successful mission as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of [[Venus]] and is presumed to burn up in the atmosphere.
* Asteroid [[7484 Dogo Onsen]] is discovered by [[Masahiro Koishikawa]].
* [[14032 Mego]] is discovered.
* [[8C 1435+63]] is discovered and at z=4.25 becomes the most distant known galaxy.<ref>{{Cite journal|bibcode=1994MNRAS.271..504L|title=8C 1435+635: A radio galaxy at z = 4.25|last1=Lacy|first1=M.|last2=Miley|first2=G.|last3=Rawlings|first3=S.|last4=Saunders|first4=R.|last5=Dickinson|first5=M.|last6=Garrington|first6=S.|last7=Maddox|first7=S.|last8=Pooley|first8=G.|last9=Steidel|first9=C. C.|last10=Bremer|first10=M.N.|last11=Cotter|first11=G.|last12=van Ojik|first12=R.|last13=Röttgering|first13=H.|last14=Warner|first14=P.|volume=271|issue=2|year=1994|pages=504–512|journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]|doi=10.1093/mnras/271.2.504 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |arxiv = astro-ph/9411007|last1 = Spinrad|first1 = Hyron|title = Keck Observations of the Most Distant Galaxy: 8C1435+63 at z=4.25|journal = The Astrophysical Journal|volume = 438|pages = L51|last2 = Dey|first2 = Arjun|last3 = Graham|first3 = James R|year = 1994|doi = 10.1086/187713|bibcode = 1995ApJ...438L..51S| s2cid=37520541 }}</ref>

==Biology and medicine==
* May 18 – The [[Flavr Savr]], a [[genetically modified tomato]], is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA, becoming the first commercially grown [[Genetic engineering|genetically engineered]] food to be granted a license for human consumption. 
* September 10 – ''[[Wollemia]]'' (the 'Wollemi Pine'), previously known only from fossils, is discovered living in remote [[rainforest]] [[Canyon|gorges]] in the [[Wollemi National Park]] of [[New South Wales]] by [[David Noble (canyoner)|David Noble]].<ref>{{cite book|first=James|last=Woodford|title=The Wollemi Pine: the incredible discovery of a living fossil from the age of the dinosaurs|edition=rev.|publisher=Text Publishing Co|year=2002|isbn=978-1-876485-74-0}}</ref>
* October – First public demonstration of the [[Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews]].<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>
* December 15 – Publication of the "[[Keiji Fukuda|Fukuda]]" [[Clinical descriptions of chronic fatigue syndrome|clinical description of chronic fatigue syndrome]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Fukuda, Keiji |author2=Straus, Stephen E. |author3=Hickie, Ian |author4=Sharpe, Michael C. |author5=Dobbins, James G. |author6=Komaroff, Anthony|author7=International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group |title=The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Comprehensive Approach to Its Definition and Study|journal=[[Annals of Internal Medicine]]|volume=121|issue=12|pages=953–9|date=15 December 1994|pmid=7978722|doi=10.7326/0003-4819-121-12-199412150-00009|s2cid=510735 }}</ref>
* The [[Dingiso]] or [[tree-kangaroo]] of [[Western New Guinea]] is first seen by scientists.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Flannery, T. F.|author-link=Tim Flannery|author2=Boeadi|author3=Szalay, A. L.|year=1995|title=A new tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus: Marsupialia'') from Irian Jaya, Indonesia, with notes on ethnography and the evolution of tree-kangaroos|journal=Mammalia|volume=59|issue=1|pages=65–84|doi=10.1515/mamm.1995.59.1.65|s2cid=85107840 }}</ref>
* [[Gilbert's potoroo]] is rediscovered in Australia having been thought extinct.
* ''[[Flora of China (series)|Flora of China]]'' begins publication.
* The first [[gene]] linked to [[Alzheimer's disease]] is discovered. No new linked genes would be found until [[2009 in science|2009]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12937131|title=Five more Alzheimer's genes discovered, scientists say|first=James|last=Gallagher|date=2011-04-04|website=[[BBC News]]|accessdate=2018-01-12}}</ref>
* The ''[[BRCA1]]'' [[gene]] is cloned by scientists at University of Utah, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and [[Myriad Genetics]].<ref>{{Ref patent|country=US|number=5747282|status=patent|title=7Q-linked breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene|gdate=1998-05-05|fdate=1995-06-07|inventor=Skolnick, H. S.; Goldgar, D. E.; Miki, Y.; Swenson, J.; Kamb, A.; Harshman, K. D.; Shattuck-Eidens, D. M.; Tavtigian, S. V.; Wiseman, R. W.; Futreal, P. A.|assign1=Myriad Genetics, Inc., The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Health and Human Services,|assign2=University of Utah Research Foundation.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Miki, Y.|author2=Swensen, J.|author3=Shattuck-Eidens, D.|author4=Futreal, P. A.|author5=Harshman, K.|author6=Tavtigian, S.|author7=Liu, Q.|author8=Cochran, C.|author9=Bennett, L. M.|author10=Ding, W.|title=A strong candidate for the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene BRCA1|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=266|issue=5182|pages=66–71|date=October 1994|pmid=7545954|doi=10.1126/science.7545954|bibcode=1994Sci...266...66M|doi-access=}}</ref>
* The [[Western Hemisphere]] is declared free of [[polio]].

==Chemistry==
* November 9 – Darmstadtium [[discovery of the chemical elements|first detected]] at the [[Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung]] (GSI) in [[Darmstadt]], [[Germany]], by [[Peter Armbruster]] and [[Gottfried Münzenberg]], under the direction of Prof. Sigurd Hofmann.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF01291181|title=Production and decay of <sup>269</sup>110|year=1995
|journal=Zeitschrift für Physik A |volume=350|pages=277–280|last1=Hofmann|first1=S.|last2=Ninov|first2=V.|last3=Heßberger|first3=F. P.|last4=Armbruster|first4=P.|last5=Folger|first5=H.|last6=Münzenberg|first6=G.|last7=Schött|first7=H. J.|last8=Popeko|first8=A. G.|last9=Yeremin|first9=A. V.|first10=A. N.|last10=Andreyev|first11=S. |last11=Saro|first12=R. |last12=Janik|first13=M. |last13=Leino|bibcode = 1995ZPhyA.350..277H|issue=4|s2cid=125020220 }}</ref>
* December 8 – The first three [[atom]]s of [[Roentgenium]] are observed by an international team led by Sigurd Hofmann at the [[Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung|GSI]] in [[Darmstadt]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF01291182 |title=The new element 111 |year=1995 |author=Hofmann, S. |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik A |volume=350 |pages=281–282 |last2=Ninov |first2=V. |last3=Heßberger |first3=F. P. |last4=Armbruster |first4=P. |last5=Folger |first5=H. |last6=Münzenberg |first6=G. |last7=Schött |first7=H. J. |last8=Popeko |first8=A. G. |last9=Yeremin |first9=A. V. |first10=A. N. |last10=Andreyev |first11=S. |last11=Saro |first12=R. |last12=Janik |first13=M. |last13=Leino |bibcode=1995ZPhyA.350..281H |issue=4 |s2cid=18804192 |url=http://wwwsusi4.gsi.de/forschung/kp/kp2/ship/111publication.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116120246/http://wwwsusi4.gsi.de/forschung/kp/kp2/ship/111publication.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-01-16 }}</ref>

==Computer science==
* January – [[Jerry Yang (entrepreneur)|Jerry Yang]] and [[David Filo]] create "Jerry's Guide to the [[World Wide Web]]", a hierarchically organised website, while studying at [[Stanford University]]; in April it is renamed [[Yahoo!]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Who is Jerry Yang?|url=http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/who-is-jerry-yang-168111|website=NDTV|publisher=NDTV Convergence Limited|accessdate=2013-05-27|author=Agence France Presse|date=2012-01-18}}</ref>
* March 14 
** [[Apple Inc.|Apple Computer, Inc.]] releases the [[Power Macintosh]], the first Macintosh computers to use the new [[PowerPC]] microprocessors.
** The [[Linux kernel]] version 1.0.0 is released after over two years of development.
* April 12 – Husband-and-wife law partners [[Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel]] post the first massive commercial [[Spamming|spam]] on [[Usenet]] in the United States.
* July 5 – [[Jeff Bezos]] launches [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]].
* c. August – [[Pizza Hut]] becomes the first restaurant to offer [[online food ordering]], in California.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pizza-hut_n_3894981|title=Pizza Hut Tells Twitter It Made The First Online Sale In 1994|website=HuffPost|access-date=2021-11-15|date=2013-09-09|archive-date=2019-11-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105115930/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pizza-hut_n_3894981|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/index.html?ver=293#1990s|title=Hobbes' Internet Timeline 25|website=Zakon.org|access-date=2018-08-14|archive-date=2020-11-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111235130/https://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/index.html?ver=293#1990s|url-status=live}}</ref>
* October 1 – The [[World Wide Web Consortium]] is founded by [[Tim Berners-Lee]], becoming the main international [[standards organization]] for the [[World Wide Web]].
* c. November – [[Online service]] [[America Online]] purchases Booklink as a browser to offer its users a gateway to the [[World Wide Web]] for the first time. This marks the beginning of easy accessibility of the Web to the average person in the U.S.<ref>{{cite news|title=America Online Buys 2 Internet Companies|date=1994-11-10|author=Lewis, Peter|work=[[New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/10/business/america-online-buys-2-internet-companies.html}}</ref> In 1996, AOL replaces Booklink with a browser based on Internet Explorer, allegedly in exchange for inclusion of AOL in Windows.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=[[CNET]]|url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/aol-exec-details-choosing-ie/|title=AOL exec details choosing IE|author=Hu, Jim|date=2002-01-02}}</ref>
* December 3 – [[Sony]] release the [[PlayStation]] [[History of video game consoles (fifth generation)|fifth generation]] home [[video game console]] in [[Japan]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Business Development/Japan (1994~2004)|url=http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatajpn2004_e.html|publisher=Sony|accessdate=2012-02-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703205240/http://scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatajpn2004_e.html|archive-date=2011-07-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* December 15 – [[Netscape]] launch the [[Netscape Navigator]] [[web browser]], for which it creates [[HTTP Secure]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLvsis4_QhEC&pg=PA344|title=Embedded software|last=Walls|first=Colin|year=2005|page=344|publisher=Elsevier |accessdate=2012-01-28<!--DASHBot-->|isbn=9780750679541}}</ref>
* [[Leonard Adleman]] describes the experimental use of [[DNA]] as a computational system to solve a seven-node instance of the [[Hamiltonian path problem]], the first known instance of the successful use of DNA to compute an [[algorithm]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Leonard M.|last=Adleman|title=Molecular Computation of Solutions To Combinatorial Problems|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=266|issue=5187|date=1994-11-11|pages=1021–4|doi=10.1126/science.7973651|pmid=7973651|jstor=2885489|bibcode = 1994Sci...266.1021A |citeseerx=10.1.1.54.2565}}</ref>
* [[Penguin Books]] offer [[Peter James (writer)|Peter James]]' novel ''Host'' on two [[floppy disk]]s as "the world's first electronic novel".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206103002/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10380579.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 6, 2013|title=All Eight Roy Grace Novels by Peter James Now Available in e-Book Format in the United States: Author of "the world's first electronic novel" in 1994|website=prweb|date=2013-01-31|accessdate=2015-10-31}}</ref>

==Earth sciences==
* December 21 – Mexico's [[Popocatépetl]] volcano, dormant for 47 years, resumes eruption.

==Mathematics==
* September 19 – [[Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem]]: English mathematician [[Andrew Wiles]] devises a new approach to the final proof of [[Fermat's Last Theorem]], sending his proof to colleagues on October 6 and submitting for publication on October 24.
* The [[tennis ball theorem]] is first published under this name by Russian mathematician [[Vladimir Arnold]].<ref>{{citation|last=Arnol'd|first=V. I.|contribution=20. The tennis ball theorem|doi=10.1090/ulect/005|isbn=978-0-8218-0308-0|mr=1286249|pages=[https://archive.org/details/topologicalinvar0000arno/page/53 53–58]|publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]]|location=Providence, RI|series=University Lecture Series|title=Topological invariants of plane curves and caustics|volume=5|year=1994|url=https://archive.org/details/topologicalinvar0000arno/page/53}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Martinez-Maure|first=Yves|doi=10.2307/2975192|issue=4|journal=[[American Mathematical Monthly]]|mr=1383672|pages=338–340|title=A note on the tennis ball theorem|volume=103|year=1996|jstor=2975192}}</ref>

==Molecular biology==
* [[Green fluorescent protein]] is successfully expressed in ''[[Caenorhabditis elegans|C. elegans]]'', starting its career as a fluorescent marker.

==Technology==
* May 6 – The [[Channel Tunnel]], which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to complete, officially opens between England and France; it will enable passengers to travel by rail between the two countries in 35 minutes.
* August 16 – The world's first [[smartphone]], the [[IBM Simon]], goes on sale.<ref>{{cite web|title=World's first 'smartphone' celebrates 20 years|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28802053|website=BBC|date=15 August 2014|accessdate=17 August 2014}}</ref>
* The first high-brightness [[LED lamp|blue LED]] is achieved, an invention that earns the researchers a Nobel Prize in 2014.<ref>{{cite news|last=Overbye|first=Dennis|authorlink=Dennis Overbye|title=Nobel Prize in Physics|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/science/isamu-akasaki-hiroshi-amano-and-shuji-nakamura-awarded-the-nobel-prize-in-physics.html|date=7 October 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=7 October 2014}}</ref>
* [[QR code]] invented by Japanese company [[Denso]].

==Awards==
*[[Fields Medal|Fields Prize in Mathematics]]: [[Efim Isakovich Zelmanov]], [[Pierre-Louis Lions]], [[Jean Bourgain]] and [[Jean-Christophe Yoccoz]]
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Bertram N. Brockhouse]], [[Clifford G. Shull]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[George A. Olah]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Alfred G. Gilman]], [[Martin Rodbell]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Edward Feigenbaum]], [[Raj Reddy]]
* [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for Geology]] – [[William Jason Morgan]]

==Deaths==
* January 25 – [[Stephen Cole Kleene]] (b. [[1909 in science|1909]]), [[Americans|American]] [[mathematician]].
* April 17 – [[Roger Wolcott Sperry]] (b. [[1913 in science|1913]]), American [[Neuropsychology|neuropsychologist]], [[Neurobiology|neurobiologist]] and winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* May 12 – [[Erik Erikson]] (b. [[1902 in science|1902]]), German American [[psychologist]].
* July 29 – [[Dorothy Hodgkin]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), [[British people|British]] [[biochemist]] and winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* August 19 – [[Linus Pauling]] (b. [[1901 in science|1901]]), American [[chemist]].
* August 29 – [[Arthur Mourant]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), [[Jersey|Jersiais]] [[hematologist]].
* October 28 – [[Calvin Souther Fuller]] (b. 1902), American [[physical chemist]] at [[AT&T Bell Laboratories]].

==References==
{{Portal|1990s|Science}}
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1994 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1990s in science]]