Editing 1998 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2011}}
{{Year nav topic5|1998|science}}
{{Science year nav|1998}}

The year '''1998 in science''' and technology involved many events, some of which are included below.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January&ndash;September – [[Cosmologist]]s from the [[Supernova Cosmology Project]] led by [[Saul Perlmutter]] and the [[High-z Supernova Search Team]] led by [[Adam Riess]] and [[Brian Schmidt]] publish evidence that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Discovery of a supernova explosion at half the age of the Universe|author=Perlmutter, S.|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=391|pages=51–4|date=1998-01-01|doi=10.1038/34124|issue=6662|arxiv = astro-ph/9712212 |bibcode = 1998Natur.391...51P |s2cid=4329577 |display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[The Astronomical Journal]]|volume=116|issue=3|author=Riess, Adam G. |pages=1009–38|doi=10.1086/300499|title=Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant|bibcode=1998AJ....116.1009R|arxiv = astro-ph/9805201  |date=September 1998|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371|title=Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find|first=Jason|last=Palmer|date=2011-10-04|accessdate=2011-10-06|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref>
* January 6 – The [[Lunar Prospector]] spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon and later finds evidence for frozen water on the Moon's surface.
* February 26 – [[Solar eclipse of February 26, 1998|Total solar eclipse]]
* March 2 – Data sent from the [[Galileo space probe]] indicates that [[Jupiter]]'s moon [[Europa (moon)|Europa]] has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
* March 5 – [[NASA]] announces that the [[Clementine mission|Clementine]] probe orbiting the [[Moon]] has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket-fuelling station.
* March 13 – [[March 1998 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]]
* July 5 – Japan launches a probe to [[Mars]], and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space-exploring nation.
* August 8 – [[August 1998 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]]
* August 22 – [[Solar eclipse of August 22, 1998|Annular solar eclipse]]
* September 6 – [[September 1998 lunar eclipse|Penumbral lunar eclipse]]
* October 29 – [[Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle ''Discovery'']] blasts-off with 77-year-old [[John Glenn]] on board, making him the oldest person to go into space up to that time. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.
* November 20 – [[Zarya (ISS module)|Zarya]], the first module of the [[International Space Station]], is launched.
* The first of four 8.4 m [[reflecting telescope]]s opens in the [[Very Large Telescope]] program of the [[European Southern Observatory]] at [[Cerro Paranal]] in Chile.

==Botany==
* The [[Angiosperm Phylogeny Group]] publishes the first version of the [[APG System]] of plant classification.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Angiosperm Phylogeny Group|year=1998 |title=An ordinal classification for the families of flowering plants |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279592674|journal=[[Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden]]|volume=85|issue=4|pages=531–53|jstor=2992015|doi=10.2307/2992015}}</ref>

==Climatology==
* April 23 – The [[hockey stick graph (global temperature)]] comes to public attention.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mann|first1=Michael E.|last2=Bradley|first2=Raymond S.|last3=Hughes|first3=Malcolm K.|date=1998-04-23|title=Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries|journal=Nature|volume=392|issue=6678|pages=779–787|doi=10.1038/33859|url=http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/shared/articles/mbh98.pdf|bibcode=1998Natur.392..779M|s2cid=129871008}}</ref>

==Computer science==
* February 10 – [[XML]] is published as a recommendation of the [[W3C]].
* June 2 – The [[CIH virus]] is discovered in [[Taiwan]].
* August 15 – [[Apple Inc|Apple]] releases the [[iMac]].
* September 4 – [[Google]], Inc. is founded in [[Menlo Park, California]], by [[Stanford University]] PhD candidates [[Larry Page]] and [[Sergey Brin]] to promote their web search engine.
* November 7 – [[Sega]] release the [[Dreamcast]], the first [[History of video game consoles (sixth generation)|sixth generation]] [[home video game console]], in Japan.
* The first working 2-qubit [[nuclear magnetic resonance]] computer is demonstrated at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].
* [[Tiger Electronics]] launch the [[Furby]] electronic toy, the first [[domestic robot]].

==Geology==
* February 4 – The 5.9 {{M|w|link=y}} [[February 1998 Afghanistan earthquake|Afghanistan earthquake]] shakes the [[Takhar Province]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of VII (''Very strong''). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
* March 14 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
* May 30 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.
* July 17 – The 7.0 {{M|w}} [[1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake|Papua New Guinea earthquake]] shakes the region near [[Aitape]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of VIII (''Severe''). This [[submarine earthquake]] triggered a landslide that caused a destructive tsunami, leaving 2,183–2,700 dead and thousands injured.

==Mathematics==
* [[Luca Cardelli]] and [[Andrew D. Gordon]] develop [[ambient calculus]].
* [[Thomas Callister Hales]] (almost certainly) proves the [[Kepler conjecture]].

==Paleontology==
* September 11 – First portion of upper body (an upper arm bone, followed later by the skull) of "[[Little Foot]]" (Stw 573), a nearly complete  young female [[Australopithecus]] fossil skeleton capable of walking upright is found in the cave system of [[Sterkfontein]], [[South Africa]] eventually dated at around 3.67 million years BP.<ref>{{cite news|last=Geggel|first=Laura|title='Miracle' Excavation of 'Little Foot' Skeleton Reveals Mysterious Human Relative|url=https://www.livescience.com/64275-little-foot-hominin-excavated.html|date=2018-12-11|work=[[Live Science]]|access-date=2018-12-11}}</ref>

==Physics==
* [[January 1]] – Argentinian physicist [[Juan Maldacena]] publishes a landmark paper initiating the study of [[AdS/CFT correspondence]], which links [[string theory]] and [[quantum gravity]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Maldacena| first1=Juan | title=The Large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity | journal=Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics | volume=2 | issue=4 | year=1998 | pages=231–252 | arxiv=hep-th/9711200|bibcode = 1998AdTMP...2..231M | doi=10.4310/ATMP.1998.V2.N2.A1}}</ref>
* May 11 & 13 – [[Nuclear testing]]: The [[Pokhran-II]]: India detonates the five nuclear devices in [[Pokhran|Pokhran Test Range]], an [[Indian Army]] base.
* May 28 – Nuclear testing: The [[Chagai-I]]: In response to India, Pakistan conducts five underground and simultaneous nuclear weapon-testing experiments in the [[Chagai Hills]], thus becoming the first nuclear weapon state in the Muslim world and the seventh in the world.
* May 30 – Nuclear testing: The [[Chagai-II]]: As part of a tit-for-tat policy, a final plutonium implosion test is carried out in the [[Kharan Desert]].
* June 5 &ndash; Experimental proof is obtained that [[neutrinos]] have mass.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/106629.stm | publisher=BBC News | title=Ghostly particles rule the universe | date=June 5, 1998}}</ref>

==Physiology and medicine==
* January 14 – Researchers in [[Dallas]], Texas, present findings about an [[enzyme]] that slows aging and cell death ([[apoptosis]]).
* February 19 – [[RNA interference]] first elucidated in the [[nematode]] ''[[Caenorhabditis elegans]]''.
* February 28 – [[Andrew Wakefield]] publishes a [[case series]] (subsequently partially retracted) in ''[[The Lancet]]'' of twelve children with [[Gastroenterology|gastroenterological]] and [[Autism spectrum|autistic spectrum]] disorders believed to have first presented soon after receipt of the [[MMR vaccine]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wakefield, A. J.|title=Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children|journal=Lancet|volume=351|issue=9103|pages=637–41|date=1998-02-28|pmid=9500320|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0|s2cid=439791 |display-authors=etal}}{{Retracted|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4|pmid=20137807|http://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-leaderboard/top-10-most-highly-cited-retracted-papers/ ''Retraction Watch''|http://retractionwatch.com/2015/02/03/frauds-long-tail-measles-outbreak-shows-important-look-downstream-retractions/ ''Retraction Watch''|intentional=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|authorlink=Ben Goldacre|first=Ben|last=Goldacre|chapter=The Media's MMR Hoax|title=Bad Science|location=London|publisher=Harper Perennial|year=2009|isbn=978-0-00-728487-0|pages=290–331}}</ref>
* March 27 – The [[Food and Drug Administration]] approves [[Viagra]] for use as a treatment for [[erectile dysfunction]], the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
* May – Friedrich-Wilhelm Mohr performs the first [[robotic surgery|robotically assisted]] [[coronary artery bypass surgery]], at the [[Leipzig]] Heart Centre in Germany using the [[da Vinci Surgical System]];{{citation needed|date=January 2011}} later in the year, Ralph Damiano performs on 17 patients in [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite book|page=151|first=Trevor|last=Homer|title=The Book of Origins|location=London|publisher=Portrait|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7499-5110-8}}</ref>
* July 17 – [[Biologist]]s report in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' how they sequenced the [[genome]] of the bacterium that causes [[syphilis]], ''[[Treponema pallidum]]''.
* August – [[Edinburgh]] Modular Arm System, the world's first [[bionic arm]], is fitted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/stories/science-and-technology/made-in-scotland-changing-the-world/scottish-science-innovations/emas-bionic-arm/|title=EMAS: The first bionic arm|publisher=[[National Museums Scotland]]|accessdate=2017-08-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815184106/http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore/stories/science-and-technology/made-in-scotland-changing-the-world/scottish-science-innovations/emas-bionic-arm/|archive-date=August 15, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* September 23 – The world's first medically successful [[hand transplantation]] is carried out by a team of surgeons in France.<ref>{{cite news|title=World's first hand transplant|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/179435.stm|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=1998-09-25|accessdate=2013-01-05}}</ref>
* December 11
** [[Bruce Beutler]] and colleagues publish their discovery that [[Toll-like receptor]] 4 functions as a [[lipopolysaccharide]] sensing receptor.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Poltorak, Alexander|authorlink=Alexander I. Poltorak|title=Defective LPS signaling in C3H/HeJ and C57BL/10ScCr mice: mutations in Tlr4 gene|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=282|issue=5396|pages=2085–8|date=December 1998|pmid=9851930|doi=10.1126/science.282.5396.2085|bibcode=1998Sci...282.2085P|display-authors=etal}}</ref>
** The [[nematode]] ''[[Caenorhabditis elegans]]'' becomes the first [[multicellular organism]] to have its [[whole genome sequencing]] published.<ref>With some small gaps. {{cite journal|author=The ''C. elegans'' Sequencing Consortium|year=1998|title=Genome sequence of the nematode ''C. elegans'': A platform for investigating biology|journal=Science|volume=282|issue=5396|pages=2012–2018|doi=10.1126/science.282.5396.2012|pmid=9851916|bibcode=1998Sci...282.2012.}}</ref>
* [[Fred Gage]] and [[Peter Eriksson (neuroscientist)|Peter Eriksson]] discover and announce [[neurogenesis]] in the adult human [[hippocampus]].

==Technology==
* April 5 – In Japan, the [[Akashi Kaikyō Bridge]] linking [[Shikoku]] with [[Honshū]], at a cost of about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the longest-span [[suspension bridge]] in the world.
* August 24 – The first experiments with an [[RFID]] implant carried out by [[Kevin Warwick]] in the UK.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/14/chipman.idg/ | work=CNN | title=Is human chip implant wave of the future? | date=January 13, 1999 | accessdate=May 12, 2010}}</ref>

==Institutions==
* [[Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield|Susan Greenfield]] appointed Director of the [[Royal Institution]] of Great Britain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayContent&id=00000001885|title=Baroness Susan Greenfield|publisher=Royal Institution|accessdate=2011-08-04|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721185206/http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?action=displayContent&id=00000001885|archivedate=July 21, 2011|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
* [[Café Scientifique]] first organized in the UK.

==Publications==
* Jacques Heyman – ''Structural Analysis: A Historical Approach'' (Cambridge University Press)<ref>{{ISBN|0-521-62249-2}}.</ref>

==Awards==
*[[Fields Medal|Fields Prize in Mathematics]]: [[Richard Ewen Borcherds]], [[William Timothy Gowers]], [[Maxim Kontsevich]] and [[Curtis T. McMullen]]
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Robert B. Laughlin]], [[Horst L. Störmer]], [[Daniel C. Tsui]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Walter Kohn]], [[John Pople]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Robert F. Furchgott]], [[Louis J. Ignarro]], [[Ferid Murad]]
* [[Turing Award]]: [[Jim Gray (computer scientist)|Jim Gray]]
* [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for Geology]]: [[Karl Karekin Turekian]]

==Deaths==
* March 13 – [[Hans von Ohain]] (b. [[1911 in science|1911]]), German aeronautical engineer.
* March 15 – [[Benjamin Spock]] (b. [[1903 in science|1903]]), American [[pediatrician]].
* March 16 – Sir [[Derek Barton]] (b. [[1918 in science|1918]]), English-born [[organic chemist]], [[Nobel laureate]]. 
* May 9 – [[R. J. G. Savage]] (b. [[1927 in science|1927]]), British [[palaeontologist]].
* May 14 – [[Marjory Stoneman Douglas]] (b. [[1890 in science|1890]]), American conservationist.
* May 22 – [[José Enrique Moyal]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), Jerusalem-born mathematical physicist.
* May 31 – [[Michio Suzuki (mathematician)|Michio Suzuki]] (b. [[1926 in science|1926]]), Japanese [[mathematician]].
* July 3 – [[Danielle Bunten Berry]], also known as Dan Bunten (b. [[1949 in science|1949]]), American software developer.
* July 12 – [[Arkady Ostashev]] (b. [[1925 in science|1925]]), Soviet, Russian scientist, participant in the launch of the first artificial Earth [[Sputnik 1|satellite]] and the [[Yuri Gagarin|first cosmonaut]], [[Kandidat|Candidate of Technical Sciences]], [[Docent]], [[laureate]] of the [[Lenin Prize|Lenin]] and [[USSR State Prize|state]] [[prize]]s.
* July 14 – [[Miroslav Holub]] (b. [[1923 in science|1923]]), [[Czechs|Czech]] immunologist and poet.
* July 21 – [[Alan Shepard]] (b. 1923), American [[astronaut]].
* August 4 – [[Yury Artyukhin]] (b. [[1930 in science|1930]]), Soviet Russian [[Astronaut|cosmonaut]].
* August 26 – [[Frederick Reines]] (b. 1918), American [[physicist]], Nobel laureate.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wilford |first1=John Noble |title=Frederick Reines Dies at 80; Nobelist Discovered Neutrino |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/28/us/frederick-reines-dies-at-80-nobelist-discovered-neutrino.html |access-date=24 October 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=28 August 1998 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* October 10 – [[Konstantin Petrzhak]] (b. [[1907 in science|1907]]), Soviet Russian physicist.
* October 28 – [[Tommy Flowers]] (b. [[1905 in science|1905]]), English computer engineer.
* November 12 – [[Sally Shlaer]] (b. [[1938 in science|1938]]), US mathematician and engineer 
* November 24 – [[Nicholas Kurti]] (b. [[1908 in science|1908]]), Hungarian-born physicist.
* December 5 – [[Hazel Bishop]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American cosmetic chemist.
* December 7 – [[Martin Rodbell]] (b. 1925), American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist, Nobel laureate.
* December 17 – [[Claudia Benton]] (b. c.1959), American [[pediatric]] [[neurologist]] (murdered).
* December 18 – [[Lev Dyomin]] (b. 1926), Soviet Russian cosmonaut.
* December 20 – [[Alan Lloyd Hodgkin|Sir Alan Hodgkin]] (b. [[1914 in science|1914]]), English [[physiologist]], Nobel laureate.
* December 28 – [[Robert Rosen (theoretical biologist)|Robert Rosen]] (b. [[1934 in science|1934]]), American theoretical biologist.

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

[[Category:1998 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1990s in science]]