Editing 1999 in science

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1999|science}}
{{Science year nav|1999}}

The year '''1999 in science''' and technology involved some significant events.

==Aeronautics==
* February 27 – While trying to [[circumnavigation|circumnavigate]] the world in a [[hot air balloon]], [[Colin Prescot]] and [[Andy Elson]] set a new endurance record after being in their balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
* March 3&ndash;20 – [[Bertrand Piccard]] and [[Brian Jones (aeronaut)|Brian Jones]] successfully complete a non-stop circumnavigation of the world in a hot air balloon.

==Astronomy and space exploration==
[[File:Solar eclipse 1999 4.jpg|thumb|Total solar eclipse of August 11, viewed from France]]
* January 31 – [[January 1999 lunar eclipse|A total penumbral lunar eclipse]].
* February 7 – ''[[Stardust (spacecraft)|Stardust]]'' is launched on a mission to collect samples of a [[comet]] [[coma (cometary)|coma]], and return them to Earth.
* February 16 – [[Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999|Annular solar eclipse]], visible from Australia.
* July 20 – [[Mercury program]]: ''[[Liberty Bell 7]]'' is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
* July 28 – [[July 1999 lunar eclipse|Partial lunar eclipse]], visible from Australia, eastern Asia, and western North America.
* July 31 – [[NASA]] intentionally crashes the ''[[Lunar Prospector]]'' spacecraft into the [[Moon]], thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon's surface.
* August 11 – [[Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999|Total solar eclipse]], visible from Europe, across the Middle East, and ending in India.
*December 16 – The [[Beethoven Burst (GRB 991216)]] is one of the most powerful detected [[Gamma-ray bursts]].
* NASA loses two [[Mars]] probes, the ''[[Mars Climate Orbiter]]'' and the [[Mars Polar Lander]].
* The [[Subaru (telescope)|Subaru]] 8.3 m and [[Gemini telescope|Gemini North]] 8.1 m [[reflecting telescope]]s open at the [[Mauna Kea Observatory]] in Hawaii.
* The [[Cetus Dwarf]] galaxy is discovered.
* [[M–sigma relation]] first presented.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Merritt|author-link=David Merritt|editor1-first=F.|editor1-last=Combes|editor2-first=G. A.|editor2-last=Mamon|editor3-first=V.|editor3-last=Charmandaris|chapter=Black holes and galaxy evolution|title=Dynamics of Galaxies: From the Early Universe to the Present|volume=197|series=Publications of the [[Astronomical Society of the Pacific]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/xvthiapmeetingdy0197iapm/page/221 221–232]|year=1999|isbn=978-1-58381-024-8|bibcode=2000ASPC..197..221M|arxiv=astro-ph/9910546|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/xvthiapmeetingdy0197iapm/page/221}}</ref>

==Biology==
* November 1 – [[Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds]] comes into force.
* Late – [[Pest-exclusion fence]] around [[Zealandia (wildlife sanctuary)]] in [[Wellington]], New Zealand, completed.
* The bacterium ''[[Thiomargarita namibiensis]]'' is discovered off the coast of [[Namibia]]. At 0.3mm in diameter, it is largest bacteria {{As of|2016|alt=yet}} discovered.

==Chemistry==
* [[Oganesson|Elements 118]] and [[Livermorium|116]] are claimed to be made for the first time; later retracted when results cannot be replicated.

==Computer science==
* March 26 – The [[Melissa worm]] attacks the Internet.
* June – {{IETF RFC|2616}} defines HTTP/1.1, the version of [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] in common use.
* September 21 – [[David Bowie]]'s ''[[Hours (David Bowie album)|Hours]]'' becomes the first complete music [[album]] by a major artist available to download over the Internet in advance of the physical release.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/22/business/the-flux-in-pop-music-has-a-distinctly-download-beat-to-it.html|title=The Flux in Pop Music Has a Distinctly Download Beat to It|first=Sue|last=Cummings|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=1999-09-22|accessdate=2013-11-01}}</ref>
* First working 3-[[qubit]] [[NMR computer]] demonstrated at [[IBM]]'s Almaden Research Center. First execution of [[Grover's algorithm]].
* The term '[[Web 2.0]]' is coined by [[Darcy DiNucci]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=DiNucci|first=Darcy|year=1999|title=Fragmented Future|url=http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Print|volume=53|issue=4|page=32|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110143942/http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf|archive-date=2011-11-10|access-date=2011-11-04}}</ref>
* Probable date – First [[emoji]]s introduced, in Japan.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

==Geology==
* January 25 – A 6.0 [[Richter magnitude scale|Richter scale]] [[earthquake]] hits western [[Colombia]], killing at least 1,000.
* August 17 – The 7.6 {{M|w}} [[1999 İzmit earthquake|İzmit earthquake]] shakes northwestern [[Turkey]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of IX (''Violent''), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.

==History of science and technology==
* [[Boris Chertok]] publishes «Ракеты и люди» (''Rockets and people''), a history of the Soviet rocket program.

==Mathematics==
* Eric M. Rains and [[Neil Sloane]] extend tree counting.<ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=117}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Callister Hales]] proves the [[honeycomb theorem]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hales|first=Thomas C.|date=January 2001|title=The Honeycomb Conjecture|journal=[[Discrete and Computational Geometry]]|volume=25|issue=1|pages=1–22|arxiv=math/9906042|doi=10.1007/s004540010071|mr=1797293|s2cid=14849112 }}</ref>

==Paleontology==
* First [[fossil]] of ''[[Kenyanthropus]]'' [[Pliocene]] [[hominin]] discovered in [[Lake Turkana]], [[Kenya]].

==Physics==
* June 18 – [[Bulgaria]] becomes a member of [[CERN]].
* October 25 – [[Randall–Sundrum model]] presented by [[Lisa Randall]] and [[Raman Sundrum]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Randall|first1=Lisa|last2=Sundrum|first2=Raman|year=1999|title=Large Mass Hierarchy from a Small Extra Dimension|journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]|volume=83|issue=17|pages=3370–3|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.3370|bibcode=1999PhRvL..83.3370R|arxiv=hep-ph/9905221}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Randall|first1=Lisa|last2=Sundrum|first2=Raman|year=1999|title=An Alternative to Compactification|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=83|issue=23|pages=4690–3|arxiv=hep-th/9906064|bibcode=1999PhRvL..83.4690R|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.4690|s2cid=18530420}}</ref>

==Physiology and medicine==
* April 16 – [[Russell Foster]] and his team at [[Imperial College London]] publish their discovery of the non-[[Rod cell|rod]], non-[[Cone cell|cone]], [[intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell]]s (ipRGCs) in the mammalian eye which provide input to the [[circadian rhythm]] system.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lucas|first1=R. J.|last2=Freedman|first2=M. S.|last3=Muñoz|first3=M.|last4=Garcia-Fernández|first4=J. M.|last5=Foster|first5=R. G.|date=1999-04-16|title=Regulation of the mammalian pineal by non-rod, non-cone, ocular photoreceptors|url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.284.5413.505|journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]|volume=284|issue=5413|pages=505–507|issn=0036-8075|pmid=10205062|doi=10.1126/science.284.5413.505|bibcode=1999Sci...284..505L|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* October – [[Huda Zoghbi]] demonstrates that [[Rett syndrome]] is caused by mutations in the gene [[MECP2]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/13810|title=Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in X-linked MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binding protein 2|year=1999|last1=Amir|first1=Ruthie E.|last2=Van den Veyver|first2=Ignatia|last3=Wan|first3=Mimi|last4=Tran|first4=Charles|last5=Francke|first5=Uta|last6=Zoghbi|first6=Huda Y.|journal=[[Nature Genetics]]|volume=23|issue=2|pages=185–8|pmid=10508514|s2cid=3350350|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1099_185|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Telecommunications==
* January 19 – The first [[BlackBerry]] is released, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the [[Mobitex]] network.

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]s
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]] – [[Gerardus 't Hooft]], [[Martinus J.G. Veltman]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]] – [[Ahmed H. Zewail]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]] – [[Günter Blobel]]
* [[Turing Award]]: [[Fred Brooks]]
* [[Wollaston Medal|Wollaston Medal for Geology]]: [[John Frederick Dewey]]

==Deaths==
* February 21 – [[Gertrude B. Elion]] (b. [[1918 in science|1918]]), American [[pharmacologist]], Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
* February 25 – [[Glenn T. Seaborg]] (b. [[1912 in science|1912]]), American physical chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry.
* March 17 – [[Herbert E. Grier]] (b. [[1911 in science|1911]]), American [[electrical engineer]].
* April 28 – [[Arthur Leonard Schawlow]] (b. [[1921 in science|1921]]), American physicist, Nobel laureate in Physics.
* May 8 – [[Edward Abraham]] (b. [[1913 in science|1913]]), English [[biochemist]].
* May 26 – [[Waldo Semon]] (b. [[1898 in science|1898]]), American inventor.
* July 8 – [[Pete Conrad]] (b. [[1930 in science|1930]]), American astronaut.
* November 11 – [[Vivian Fuchs]] (b. [[1908 in science|1908]]), English geologist and [[List of explorers|explorer]].
* November 25 – [[Pierre Bézier]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), French design engineer.

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:1999 In Science}}
[[Category:1999 in science| ]]
[[Category:20th century in science]]
[[Category:1990s in science]]