Editing 2004 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|2004|science}}
{{Science year nav|2004}}

The year '''2004 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events.

==Anthropology==
* October 27 – Remains of a previously unknown species of human is discovered in [[Indonesia]]. Named ''[[Homo floresiensis]]'', the [[Hominini|hominin]] is a [[Dwarfing|dwarfed]] version that lived 18,000 years ago on the island of [[Flores]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Brown, P.|author2=Sutikna, T.|author3= Morwood, M. J.|author4= Soejono, R. P.|author5= Jatmiko, Wayhu |author6=Saptomo, E.|author7= Rokus Awe Due|date=October 27, 2004|title=A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|pmid=15514638|volume=431|issue=7012|doi=10.1038/nature02999|pages=1055–1061|bibcode = 2004Natur.431.1055B |s2cid=26441 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/15287/files/PAL_E2586.pdf }}</ref>

==Astronomy==
* March 15 – Astronomers announce the discovery last year of [[trans-Neptunian object]] [[90377 Sedna]], one of the most distant objects in the [[Solar System]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Discovery of a Candidate Inner Oort Cloud Planetoid|author=Brown, Michael E.|author-link=Michael E. Brown|author-link2=Chad Trujillo|author-link3=David L. Rabinowitz|last2=Trujillo|first2= Chadwick|last3=Rabinowitz|first3=David|journal=[[The Astrophysical Journal]]|bibcode=2004ApJ...617..645B|date=10 December 2004|volume=617|pages=645–649|issue=1|arxiv=astro-ph/0404456|doi=10.1086/422095|s2cid=7738201 }}</ref>
* April 19 – [[Solar eclipse of April 19, 2004|Partial solar eclipse]].
* May 18 – Scientists using the [[Chandra X-ray Observatory]] announced their findings that supports the notion that the expansion of the [[Universe]] is [[accelerating universe|accelerating]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2004/darkenergy/|title=Chandra :: Photo Album :: Galaxy Clusters and Dark Energy<!-- Bot generated title -->|publisher=chandra.harvard.edu|date=18 May 2004}}</ref>
* July 1 (01:12&ndash;02:48 [[UTC]]) – [[Saturn]] [[orbit insertion]] of [[Cassini–Huygens]].
* June 8 – [[Transit of Venus]] across the Sun.
* September 13 – Astronomers from the [[European Southern Observatory]] (ESO) announce images that appear to show a [[exoplanet|planet]] orbiting a [[brown dwarf]] about 230 [[light-year]]s away. The system is believed to be only around 8 million years old.
* October 14 – [[Solar eclipse of October 14, 2004|Partial solar eclipse]]
* November 20 – Launch of the [[Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission|Swift]] satellite to investigate [[gamma-ray burst]]s (GRB) and perform an [[X-ray]] all sky survey.
* December 27 – A flare of radiation from an explosion on the super-magnetic [[neutron star]] ([[Magnetar]]) [[SGR 1806-20]] reaches Earth – astronomers later calculate that it is the largest explosion observed in the [[Milky Way]] galaxy for 400 years.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/news050214-18 |title=Huge explosion traced to exotic star |journal=Nature |year=2005 |last1=Giles |first1=Jim }}</ref>

==Biology==
* April 22 – [[Tree]]s have a theoretical maximum height of 130&nbsp;m (426&nbsp;ft) before gravity restricts their growth, according to a study published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.planta.cn/forum/files_planta/the_limits_to_tree_height_995.pdf|title=The limits to tree height|author1=Koch, George W.|author2=Sillett, Stephen C.|author3=Jennings, Gregory M.|author4=Davis, Stephen D.|year=2004|journal=Nature|volume=428|issue=6985|pages=851–854|access-date=2012-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021080125/http://www.planta.cn/forum/files_planta/the_limits_to_tree_height_995.pdf|archive-date=2012-10-21|doi=10.1038/nature02417|pmid=15103376|bibcode=2004Natur.428..851K|s2cid=11846291 }}</ref>
* July 30 – Marine biologists from the [[Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute]] announce in the [[Science (journal)|journal ''Science'']] the discovery of the genus ''[[Osedax]]'', deep sea worms that feed on [[lipid]]s in decaying [[whale]] carcasses.

==Computing==
* February 4 – [[Facebook]] launches: [[Mark Zuckerberg]] launches “TheFacebook” as a social networking website for [[Harvard University]] students.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/|title=Hundreds Register for New Facebook Website|date=2004-02-09|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|first=Alan J.|last=Tabak|access-date=2024-12-22|archive-date=2019-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518221416/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* April 1 – [[Gmail]] launches.
* November 9 – [[Firefox]] launches.

==Earth sciences==
* September 28 – A long-awaited earthquake strikes [[Parkfield, California]], the most closely monitored earthquake zone in the world. The earthquake, which had been expected to have occurred by the late 1980s, strikes at a magnitude 6.0. The network of instruments that had been installed in the region make this the most well-recorded earthquake in history.
* December 26 – [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami|Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami]].

==Mathematics==
* [[Michael Aschbacher]] and Stephen D. Smith publish their work on [[quasithin group]]s, filling the last (known) gap in the [[classification of finite simple groups]].

==Paleontology==
* January – A 428 million-year-old fossil ''[[Pneumodesmus]]'' found in [[Scotland]] is identified as the world's oldest known creature to have lived on land.<ref>{{cite news|work=[[BBC News]]|date=2005-01-25|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3427499.stm|title=Fossil find 'oldest land animal'|access-date=2014-05-25}}</ref>
* Summer – A team led by [[Neil Shubin]] discover fossils of the [[Sarcopterygii|sarcopterygian]] ''[[Tiktaalik]]'' on [[Ellesmere Island]] in [[Nunavut]], [[Canada]], significant in the evolution of [[tetrapod]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=440|pages=757–763|date=6 April 2006|doi=10.1038/nature04639|title=A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan|author1=Daeschler, Edward B. |author2=Shubin, Neil H. |author3=Jenkins, Farish A. Jr |pmid=16598249|issue=7085|bibcode = 2006Natur.440..757D |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Philosophy==
{{main|2004 in philosophy}}

==Physics==
* January 14 – Physicists from [[Pennsylvania State University]] produce the first solid [[Bose–Einstein condensate]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature02220|pmid=14724632|title=Probable observation of a supersolid helium phase|journal=Nature|volume=427|issue=6971|pages=225–227|year=2004|last1=Kim|first1=E.|last2=Chan|first2=M. H. W.|bibcode=2004Natur.427..225K|s2cid=3112651 }}</ref>
* January – A team from the [[JILA]] laboratory in [[Boulder, Colorado]] announce the creation of a [[fermionic condensate]], the first such condensate made from atoms rather than molecules.
* February 3 – Russian and American physicists produce results that indicate the discovery of elements [[Nihonium|113]] and [[Moscovium|115]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Experiments on the synthesis of element 115 in the reaction <sup>243</sup>Am(<sup>48</sup>Ca,''xn'')<sup>291−''x''</sup>115|journal=Physical Review C|volume=69|issue=2|pages=021601|doi=10.1103/PhysRevC.69.021601|date=2004-02-02|last1=Oganessian|first1=Yu. Ts|last2=Utyonkoy|first2=V. K.|last3=Lobanov|first3=Yu. V.|last4=Abdullin|first4=F. Sh|last5=Polyakov|first5=A. N.|last6=Shirokovsky|first6=I. V.|last7=Tsyganov|first7=Yu. S.|last8=Gulbekian|first8=G. G.|last9=Bogomolov|first9=S. L.|last10=Mezentsev|first10=A. N.|last11=Iliev|first11=S.|last12=Subbotin|first12=V. G.|last13=Sukhov|first13=A. M.|last14=Voinov|first14=A. A.|last15=Buklanov|first15=G. V.|last16=Subotic|first16=K.|last17=Zagrebaev|first17=V. I.|last18=Itkis|first18=M. G.|last19=Patin|first19=J. B.|last20=Moody|first20=K. J.|last21=Wild|first21=J. F.|last22=Stoyer|first22=M. A.|last23=Stoyer|first23=N. J.|last24=Shaughnessy|first24=D. A.|last25=Kenneally|first25=J. M.|last26=Lougheed|first26=R. W.|bibcode=2004PhRvC..69b1601O|url=http://lt-jds.jinr.ru/record/7440/files/178%28E7-2003-178%29.pdf|access-date=2019-07-04|archive-date=2020-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200307233820/http://lt-jds.jinr.ru/record/7440/files/178%28E7-2003-178%29.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* March 22 – A team from Australia, Russia and Greece announce a new material, made from a nano-foam of [[carbon]] that has the lowest density ever reported for a solid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://physicsweb.org/article/news/8/3/13|title=Nano-foam makes magnetic debut – physicsworld.com<!-- Bot generated title -->|publisher=physicsweb.org}}</ref>
* April 20 – [[NASA]] launches [[Gravity Probe B]] in an effort to test [[Albert Einstein|Einstein's]] [[general relativity|general theory of relativity]].
* May 19 – A team of European scientists produces the first [[Tonks–Girardeau gas]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature02530|pmid=15152247|title=Tonks–Girardeau gas of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice|journal=Nature|volume=429|issue=6989|pages=277–281|year=2004|last1=Paredes|first1=Belén|last2=Widera|first2=Artur|last3=Murg|first3=Valentin|last4=Mandel|first4=Olaf|last5=Fölling|first5=Simon|last6=Cirac|first6=Ignacio|last7=Shlyapnikov|first7=Gora V.|last8=Hänsch|first8=Theodor W.|last9=Bloch|first9=Immanuel|bibcode=2004Natur.429..277P|s2cid=4423003 |url=http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb00085063-6|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* September 24 – Physicists from the [[Université Joseph Fourier]] and the [[Institut Laue–Langevin]] in [[Grenoble]], France announce the discovery of a solution (a-cyclodextrine, water, and 4-methylpyridine) that changes from liquid to solid when heated, and melts again when cooled down.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1063/1.1794652|pmid = 15352791|title = Freezing on heating of liquid solutions|journal = The Journal of Chemical Physics|volume = 121|issue = 11|pages = 5031–5034|year = 2004|last1 = Plazanet|first1 = M.|last2 = Floare|first2 = C.|last3 = Johnson|first3 = M. R.|last4 = Schweins|first4 = R.|last5 = Trommsdorff|first5 = H. P.|bibcode = 2004JChPh.121.5031P}}</ref>
* October 22 – [[Andre Geim]] and [[Konstantin Novoselov]] publish their rediscovery, isolation and characterization of [[graphene]] at the [[University of Manchester]] in England.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films|journal=Science|date=2004-10-22|issn=0036-8075|pmid=15499015|pages=666–669|volume=306|issue=5696|doi=10.1126/science.1102896|first1=K. S.|last1=Novoselov|first2=A. K.|last2=Geim|first3=S. V.|last3=Morozov|first4=D.|last4=Jiang|first5=Y.|last5=Zhang|first6=S. V.|last6=Dubonos|first7=I. V.|last7=Grigorieva|first8=A. A.|last8=Firsov|arxiv=cond-mat/0410550|bibcode=2004Sci...306..666N|s2cid=5729649 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|date=October 2009|url=http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200910/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=187967|title=This Month in Physics History: October 22, 2004: Discovery of Graphene|series=Series II|volume=18|issue=9|page=2|journal=[[APS News]]|access-date=2016-11-27}}</ref>

==Technology==
* March 27 – [[NASA]] succeeds in a second attempt to fly its [[X-43A]] experimental airplane from the [[Hyper-X]] project, attaining speeds in excess of [[Mach number|Mach]] 7, the fastest free flying air-breathing [[hypersonic]] flight.
* April 30 – Scientists from the [[University of California at Irvine]] announce the first high-speed [[transistor]] made from a [[carbon nanotube]], operating at [[microwave]] frequencies.

==Space exploration==
* January 2 – [[NASA]]'s ''[[Stardust (spacecraft)|Stardust]]'' [[space probe]] flies by [[comet]] [[81P/Wild]] and collects particle samples from its [[Coma (cometary)|coma]].
* January 4 – NASA's [[Mars Exploration Rover]] Mission ''[[Spirit (rover)|Spirit]]'' (MER-A), the first of two [[Mars rover]]s, lands successfully on [[Mars]] in the crater [[Gusev (Martian crater)|Gusev]] (Columbia Memorial Station) at 04:35 [[Spacecraft Event Time|SCET]].
* January 25 – NASA's [[Mars Exploration Rover]] Mission ''[[Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity]]'' (MER-B), the second [[Mars rover]], lands successfully on [[Mars]] in the [[Meridiani Planum]] at 05:05 [[Spacecraft Event Time|SCET]].
* March 2
** NASA report that the area where their Mars rover ''[[Opportunity (rover)|Opportunity]]'' touched down shows unmistakable signs of contact with water in the geological past.
** The [[European Space Agency]]'s [[Rosetta mission|''Rosetta'' mission]] launches, aiming to land on [[67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko|Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko]] in 2014.
* March 4 – [[NASA]]'s ''[[Spirit (rover)|Spirit]]'' finds evidence of past contact with water in volcanic rocks on Mars.
* April 1 – The ''[[Genesis (spacecraft)|Genesis]]'' probe closes and seals its particle collection instrument, and begins to return to Earth.
* June 11 – ''[[Cassini–Huygens]]'', the [[NASA]]/[[ESA]] mission to [[Saturn]], makes a flyby of one of Saturn's small outer moons, [[Phoebe (moon)|Phoebe]].
* June 21 – [[SpaceShipOne]], the first civilian space ship is launched in [[California]], reaching an altitude of {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}}, just passing the [[edge of space]].
* July 1 – The ''Cassini-Huygens'' space probe arrives at Saturn and begins its nominal 4-year mission after successfully reaching orbit.
* August 2 – [[NASA]] successfully launches the ''[[MESSENGER]]'' probe on its 5-year trip to [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]].
* September 8 – The ''[[Genesis (spacecraft)|Genesis]]'' spacecraft returns to Earth with captured [[solar wind]] particles, but crash-lands because of a failure to deploy any parachute.
* October 4 – [[SpaceShipOne]] wins the [[Ansari X Prize]] after reaching an altitude of over {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}} for the second time in less than five days.
* November 15 – The [[SMART-1]] space probe reaches orbit around the [[Moon]]. It is the first European space mission to do so.
* December 25 – The ''[[Cassini–Huygens|Cassini]]'' probe successfully drops the Huygens probe, sending it onto a trip to land on [[Saturn]]'s moon [[Titan (moon)|Titan]].

==Awards==
* [[Nobel Prize]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]]: [[Linda B. Buck]] and [[Richard Axel]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]: [[David J. Gross]], [[H. David Politzer]] and [[Frank Wilczek]]
** [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]]: [[Aaron Ciechanover]], [[Avram Hershko]] and [[Irwin Rose]]
* [[Abel Prize|Abel Prize in Mathematics]]: [[Michael Atiyah|Michael F. Atiyah]] and [[Isadore Singer|Isadore M. Singer]]
* [[Millennium Technology Prize]] (inaugural year): [[World Wide Web]] inventor [[Tim Berners-Lee]]
* [[Descartes Prize]] for outstanding cross-border research
** Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Ageing and Disease project (co-ordinator [[Howard Trevor Jacobs]])
** Long Distance Photonic Quantum Communication project (co-ordinator [[Anders Karlsson (physicist)|Anders Karlsson]])

==Appointments==
* February 12 – [[Arden Bement]], acting director of the [[United States|U.S.A.'s]] [[National Science Foundation]].
* August 26 – Neurobiologist [[Susan Hockfield]] is appointed as President of [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]].
* November 19 – Particle physicist [[Piermaria Oddone]] is appointed to succeed [[Michael Witherell]] as director of [[Fermilab]] (from July 1, 2005).

==Deaths==
* January 6 – [[Thomas Stockham]] (b. [[1933 in science|1933]]), [[Americans|American]] electrical engineer and inventor.
* January 12 – [[Olga Ladyzhenskaya]] (b. [[1922 in science|1922]]), [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] mathematician.
* February 6 – [[Humphry Osmond]] (b. [[1917 in science|1917]]), English-born [[psychiatrist]].
* February 21 – [[John D. Hoffman]] (b. [[1922 in science|1922]]), American [[nuclear chemist]].
* March 15
** [[Bill Pickering (rocket scientist)|Bill Pickering]] (b. [[1910 in science|1910]]), New Zealand-born head of [[NASA]]'s [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]].
** [[John Pople|Sir John Pople]] (b. [[1925 in science|1925]]), British [[Nobel Prize]]-winning chemist.
* April 6 – [[Biswa Ranjan Nag]] (b. [[1932 in science|1932]]), Indian physicist.
* April 19 – [[John Maynard Smith]] (b. [[1920 in science|1920]]), English [[evolutionary biologist]] and [[geneticist]].
* May 27 – [[Mikhail Postnikov]] (b. [[1927 in science|1927]]), Soviet mathematician, known for his work in [[Algebraic topology|algebraic]] and [[differential topology]].
* June 8 – [[David Mervyn Blow]] (b. [[1931 in science|1931]]), English [[biophysicist]].
* July 3 – [[Andriyan Nikolayev]] (b. [[1929 in science|1929]]), [[Astronaut|cosmonaut]].
* July 28 – [[Francis Crick]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), American [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel laureate in Physiology]] for discovering the [[double helix]] structure for [[DNA]].
* August 12 – [[Anthony John Clark|John Clark]] (b. [[1951 in science|1951]]), English-born molecular biologist, head of the [[Roslin Institute]] and part of the team that cloned [[Dolly the Sheep]].
* August 15 – [[Sune K. Bergström]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), Swedish [[biochemist]], winner of the 1982 [[Nobel Prize for Medicine]].
* August 31 – [[Fred Whipple]] (b. [[1906 in science|1906]]), American [[astronomer]] who coined the term "dirty snowball" to explain the nature of [[comet]]s.
* October 5 – [[Maurice Wilkins]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), New Zealand-born British [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel laureate in Physiology]] for discovering the [[double helix]] structure for [[DNA]] using [[X-ray diffraction]].
* October 19 – [[Lewis Urry]] (b. [[1927 in science|1927]]), Canadian inventor of the long-lasting [[alkaline battery]].
* October 21 – [[Magdalena K. P. Smith Meyer]] (b. 1931), South African [[acarologist]].
* November 18 – [[Robert Bacher]] (b. [[1905 in science|1905]]), American nuclear physicist and one of the leaders of the [[Manhattan Project]], Professor and Provost of the [[California Institute of Technology]].
* November 20 – [[Ancel Keys]] (b. [[1904 in science|1904]]), American nutritionist.
* December 26 – [[Frank Pantridge]] (b. [[1916 in science|1916]]), Northern Irish [[cardiologist]].
* December 29 – [[Julius Axelrod]], (b. [[1912 in science|1912]]), American [[biochemist]], [[Nobel Prize in Physiology]] for work with [[catecholamine]] [[neurotransmitter]]s.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web|url=http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/311204_tech-part1.htm|title=The year in science and technology in Israel|publisher=IsraCast|access-date=2006-01-12|archive-date=2006-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316012408/http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/311204_tech-part1.htm|url-status=dead}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2004 In Science}}
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[[Category:21st century in science]]
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