Editing 1997 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1997|science}}
{{Science year nav|1997}}

The year '''1997 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved many significant events, listed below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 17 – Explosion of a [[Delta II]] rocket carrying a military [[GPS]] payload shortly after liftoff from [[Cape Canaveral]].
* February 13 – Tune-up and repair work on the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] is started by astronauts from the [[Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle ''Discovery'']].
* February 27 – [[GRB 970228]], a highly luminous flash of [[gamma ray]]s, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that [[gamma-ray burst]]s occur well beyond the Milky Way.
* March 8 – [[Solar eclipse of March 9, 1997|Complete solar eclipse]].
* March 24 – [[March 1997 lunar eclipse|Partial lunar eclipse]].
* July 4 – ''[[Mars Pathfinder]]'' lands on the surface of [[Mars]].
* August 25 – Launch of [[Explorer 71]] of the [[Explorer program]] of spacecraft.
* September 2 – [[Solar eclipse of September 2, 1997|Partial solar eclipse]].
* September – [[September 1997 lunar eclipse|Total lunar eclipse]].
* October 15 – Launch of 10-year ''[[Cassini–Huygens]]'' spacecraft to [[Saturn]].
* October 30 – First successful test flight of the [[ESA]]'s [[Ariane 5]] [[expendable launch system]].

==Aviation==
* September 7 – First test flight of the [[Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor]] [[fifth-generation jet fighter]].

==Biology==
* February 22 – In [[Roslin, Scotland|Roslin]], Scotland, scientists announce that an adult [[sheep]] named [[Dolly the sheep|Dolly]] has been successfully [[Cloning|cloned]] and was born in July [[1996 in science|1996]].<ref>{{cite web|title=1997: Dolly the sheep is cloned|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/22/newsid_4245000/4245877.stm|website=BBC News|accessdate=20 February 2018|date=22 February 1997}}</ref>
* March 4 – United States President [[Bill Clinton]] bars federal funding for any research on [[human cloning]].
* March 14 – The widely cited 1973 John/Joan study of gender reassignment of a twin boy who lost his penis to a botched circumcision is exposed as fraudulent. The supposedly successful outcome for "Joan" reported by [[John Money]] had been cited as proof that gender was determined by nurture, yet the patient (later revealed as [[David Reimer]]) was in fact deeply unhappy and had returned to his original gender by the age of 15, thus indicating the exact opposite thesis.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/us/sexual-identity-not-pliable-after-all-report-says.html|title = Sexual Identity Not Pliable After All, Report Says|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 14 March 1997|last1 = Angier|first1 = Natalie}}</ref>
* April 25 – Scientists announce that [[human artificial chromosome]]s have been created.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Harrington|first=J. J.|display-authors=etal|title=Formation of de novo centromeres and construction of first-generation human artificial microchromosomes|journal=Nature Genetics|volume=15|pages=345–55|year=1997|issue=4 |pmid=9090378|doi=10.1038/ng0497-345|s2cid=9150827}}</ref>
* July 10 – In London, scientists report their [[DNA]] analysis findings from a [[Neandertal]] skeleton which support the [[out of Africa theory]] of [[human evolution]] placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
* August – [[Suzanne Simard]] and colleagues publish their discovery of carbon transfer between trees.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Simard|first=Suzanne W.|display-authors=etal|year=1997|title=Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=388|issue=6642 |pages=579–582|doi=10.1038/41557 |s2cid=4423207 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
* November 6 – The discovery of [[Klotho (biology)|klotho]], a gene involved in human aging, is reported.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://gladstoneinstitutes.org/pressrelease/2014-05-08/better-cognition-seen-with-gene-variant-carried-by-1-in-5 |title = Gladstone Institutes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1038/36285| title=Mutation of the mouse klotho gene leads to a syndrome resembling ageing| journal=Nature| volume=390| issue=6655| pages=45–51| year=1997| last1=Kuro-o| first1=Makoto| last2=Matsumura| first2=Yutaka| last3=Aizawa| first3=Hiroki| last4=Kawaguchi| first4=Hiroshi| last5=Suga| first5=Tatsuo| last6=Utsugi| first6=Toshihiro| last7=Ohyama| first7=Yoshio| last8=Kurabayashi| first8=Masahiko| last9=Kaname| first9=Tadashi| last10=Kume| first10=Eisuke| last11=Iwasaki| first11=Hitoshi| last12=Iida| first12=Akihiro| last13=Shiraki-Iida| first13=Takako| last14=Nishikawa| first14=Satoshi| last15=Nagai| first15=Ryozo| last16=Nabeshima| first16=Yo-Ichi| bibcode=1997Natur.390...45K| pmid=9363890| s2cid=4428141}}</ref>
* November 19 – In [[Des Moines, Iowa]], Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to [[McCaughey septuplets|septuplets]] in the second known case where all seven babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.

==Computer science==
* February 7 – [[Steve Jobs]] returns to [[Apple Inc.]] as a consultant after the company purchases his software startup [[NeXT]].
* May 11 – [[International Business Machines|IBM]]'s [[IBM Deep Blue|Deep Blue]] defeats [[Garry Kasparov]], the first time a computer defeats a [[chess]] grand master in a match. Deep Blue has defeated Kasparov before, but has never previously won a match against him.
* September 15 – The [[domain name]] for the [[web search engine]] [[Google]] is registered.

==Earth sciences==
* May 10 – The 7.3 {{M|w}} [[1997 Qayen earthquake|Qayen earthquake]] shakes eastern [[Iran]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of X (''Extreme''). At least are 1,567 killed and 2,300 injured.

==Mathematics==
* January 1 – The [[Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method]] is first applied in an international cricket match.
* [[Thomas Callister Hales]] verifies the proof of the [[Fundamental lemma (Langlands program)|fundamental lemma]] over the group [[symplectic group|Sp(4)]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hales|first1=Thomas C.|title=The fundamental lemma for Sp(4)|doi=10.1090/S0002-9939-97-03546-6|mr=1346977|year=1997|journal=[[Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society]]|issn=0002-9939|volume=125|issue=1|pages=301–308|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* ''[[Megalosaurus]]'' and ''[[Cetiosaurus]]'' footprints are identified at [[Ardley, Oxfordshire]], by Christopher Jackson.

==Physics==
* May – [[High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector]] (HiRes) is built and operated on the [[Dugway Proving Grounds]] in the western [[Utah]] desert.
* November 27 – [[AdS/CFT correspondence]] proposed by [[Juan Martín Maldacena]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Maldacena|first=Juan|year=1998|title=The Large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity|journal=[[Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics]]|volume=2|issue=2|pages=231–252|bibcode=1998AdTMP...2..231M|doi=10.4310/ATMP.1998.v2.n2.a1|arxiv=hep-th/9711200}}</ref>

==Physiology and medicine==
* [[Food and Drug Administration]] approval of [[daclizumab]], the first [[humanized antibody]] therapeutic.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Waldman|first=Thomas A.|year=2003|title=Immunotherapy: past, present and future|journal=Nature Medicine|volume=9|pages=269–277|doi=10.1038/nm0303-269|pmid=12612576|issue=3|s2cid=9745527|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233435|doi-access=free}}</ref>
* [[Charles M. Rice]] demonstrates the effect of the [[hepatitis C virus]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/press-release/|publisher=Nobel Foundation|accessdate=2020-10-05|date=2020-10-05}}</ref>

==Technology==
* October 15 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by the [[ThrustSSC]] team from the United Kingdom.

==Events==
* November 23 – "[[Lisa the Skeptic]]" first broadcast as an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' in the United States.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Steven Chu]], [[Claude Cohen-Tannoudji]], [[William D. Phillips]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Paul D. Boyer]], [[John E. Walker]], [[Jens Christian Skou]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Stanley B. Prusiner]]
* [[Turing Award]] – [[Douglas Engelbart]]
* [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for Geology]] – [[Douglas James Shearman]]

==Births==
* January 8 – [[Jack Andraka]], American

==Deaths==
* January 8 – [[Melvin Calvin]] (b. [[1911 in science|1911]]), [[Americans|American]] [[chemist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* January 12 – [[Jean Hoerni]] (b. [[1924 in science|1924]]), Swiss-American microelectronics engineer, developer of the [[planar process]].
* January 15 – [[Kenneth V. Thimann]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), English-American [[plant physiologist]] and [[microbiologist]] known for his studies of [[plant hormones]].
* January 17 – [[Clyde Tombaugh]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American [[astronomer]], discoverer of [[Pluto]].
* February 16 – [[Chien-Shiung Wu]] (b. [[1912 in science|1912]]), Chinese-American nuclear physicist, winner of the [[Wolf Prize in Physics]].
* March 4 – [[Robert H. Dicke]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), American [[physicist]].
* March 7 – [[Edward Mills Purcell]] (b. [[1912 in science|1912]]), American [[physicist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].<ref>{{cite web |title=E.M. Purcell {{!}} American physicist |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-M-Purcell |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=17 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
* March 29 – [[Norman Pirie]] (b. [[1907 in science|1907]]), [[British people|British]] [[virologist]].
* April 4 – [[Leo Picard]] (b. [[1900 in science|1900]]), German-born Israeli geologist.
* April 7 – [[Georgi Shonin]] (b. [[1935 in science|1935]]), Soviet [[cosmonaut]].
* April 12 – [[George Wald]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American [[physiologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* May 2 – [[John Eccles (neurophysiologist)|Sir John Eccles]] (b. [[1903 in science|1903]]), Australian [[neurophysiologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].
* June 25 – [[Jacques Cousteau]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), French [[oceanographer]].
* July 4 – [[J. Z. Young]] (b. [[1907 in science|1907]]), English [[zoologist]] and neurophysiologist.
* August 4 – [[Jeanne Calment]] (b. [[1875 in science|1875]]), French supercentenarian, [[Oldest people|oldest person]] in confirmed history.
* August 23 – Sir [[John Kendrew]] (b. [[1917 in science|1917]]), English [[molecular biologist]], winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].
* August 24 – [[Louis Essen]] (b. [[1908 in science|1908]]), English [[physicist]], co-developer of the first practical [[atomic clock]].
* October 23 – [[Mary Helen Wright Greuter|Helen Wright Greuter]] (b. [[1914 in science|1914]]), American historian of astronomy.
* September 2 – [[Viktor Frankl]] (b. [[1905 in science|1905]]), [[Austrians|Austrian]] [[psychotherapist]].
* September 4 – [[Hans Eysenck]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), British psychologist.
* December 9 – [[Karl August Folkers]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American [[biochemist]].
* December 17 – [[Reginald Victor Jones|R. V. Jones]] (b. [[1911 in science|1911]]), English physicist, expert in electronic military defence.
* December 26 – [[Cahit Arf]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), Turkish mathematician.

==References==
{{Portal|1990s|Science}}
<references />

[[Category:1997 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1990s in science]]