2007 in science explained

The year 2007 involved many significant scientific events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.

Astronomy

• 12 January – Comet McNaught reaches perihelion and becomes visible from Earth during daylight.^[1]
• 28 February – The New Horizons space probe makes a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter to change its trajectory towards Pluto.
• 3–4 March – A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and in all of Europe and Africa.^[2]
• 19 March – A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in Asia.
• 10 April – Spectroscopic analysis of HD 209458 b, an extrasolar planet, provides the first evidence of atmospheric water vapor beyond the Solar System.
• 24 April – The potentially habitable exoplanet Gliese 581 c is discovered in the constellation Libra.^[3]
• May – High Resolution Fly's Eye Observatory (HiRes) and Pierre Auger Observatory present their results suggesting a confirmation for the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin limit, the theoretical limit for ultra-high-energy cosmic rays interacting with the Cosmic Microwave Background.
• 5 June – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its second flyby of Venus en route to Mercury, which it reaches in 2011.
• 2 July – Venus and Saturn are in conjunction, with a separation of 46 arcseconds.
• 28 August – A total lunar eclipse occurs, visible in some parts of the Americas and Asia, and all of Australasia and the Pacific Ocean.
• 11 September – A partial solar eclipse occurs, visible in southern areas of South America.
• 27 September – NASA's Dawn spacecraft is launched, beginning its journey to the asteroid belt objects Vesta and Ceres. It reached Vesta in 2011, and Ceres in 2015.^[4]
• 24 October
  • Comet 17P/Holmes suddenly brightens from 17 to 2.8 magnitude.
  • Chang'e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center; on 5 November it enters lunar orbit.

Biology

• 14 January – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce they have genetically engineered chickens to lay eggs containing cancer-fighting proteins.^[5]
• 7 February – The second "Berlin Patient", Timothy Ray Brown, is given a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying the CCR5-Δ32 allele, which cures his HIV/AIDS.^[6]

Computer Science

• 9 January – Apple Inc.'s first iPhone smartphone is announced by Steve Jobs at Macworld in San Francisco; it is released in the United States on 29 June.
• 27 April – US researchers simulate half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer.^[7]
• 23 August – Chris Messina proposes use of the hashtag on Twitter.^{[8] [9] [10] [11]}
• 5 November – The Open Handset Alliance launches the Android mobile operating system.

Prizes

Abel Prize

See main article: Abel Prize.

• 2007 Abel Prize: S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan

Nobel Prize

See main article: List of Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine, List of Nobel laureates in Physics and List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry.

• 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Martin Evans
• 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg
• 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl

Deaths

• 20 February – F. Albert Cotton (b. 1930), American chemist known for research on transition metal chemistry
• 22 February – Lucille Farrier Stickel (b. 1915), American wildlife toxicologist
• 23 March – Paul Cohen (b. 1934), American mathematician, winner of the 1966 Fields Medal
• 27 March – Paul Lauterbur (b. 1929), American chemist, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in developing magnetic resonance imaging
• 4 April – Karen Spärck Jones (b. 1935), English computer scientist
• 7 July – Dame Anne McLaren (b. 1927), English developmental biologist and her ex-husband Donald Michie (b. 1923), British AI researcher (automobile accident
• 23 July – Ernst Otto Fischer (b. 1918), German winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering work in the area of organometallic chemistry
• 12 August – Ralph Asher Alpher (b. 1921), American cosmologist
• 29 September – Katsuko Saruhashi (b. 1920), Japanese geochemist
• 26 October – Arthur Kornberg (b. 1918), American biochemist, winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of DNA

See also

• 2007 in spaceflight
• List of emerging technologies

Notes and References

1. Web site: Rao . Joe . 2007 . New Comet is Brightest in 30 Years . 25 September 2012 . Space.com.
2. Web site: 4 March 2007 . Total Lunar Eclipse March 2007 . 25 September 2012 . ESA.
3. Web site: Than . Ker . 24 April 2007 . Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life . 25 September 2012 . Space.com.
4. Web site: 6 September 2012 . Dawn departs Vesta to become first asteroid hopper . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120907134311/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/09/asteroid-hopping-spacecraft-ma.html . 7 September 2012 . 24 August 2017 . New Scientist.
5. News: 14 January 2007 . Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced . 18 June 2013 . BBC News.
6. Book: Holt, Nathalia . Nathalia Holt

   . Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV . Penguin . 2015 . 978-0-14-218184-3 . 2014 . Nathalia Holt.

7. News: 27 April 2007 . Mouse brain simulated on computer . 18 June 2013 . BBC News.
8. 223115412 . chrismessina . how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]? . Chris . Messina . 2007-08-23 . 2019-09-30.
9. News: Parker, Ashley . 2011-06-10 . Twitter's Secret Handshake . 2011-07-26 . The New York Times.
10. News: 2014-12-05 . Hashtag inventor: It was an 'accidental trip over a simple idea' . 2014-12-05 . BBC News.
11. Web site: The Inventor of the Twitter Hashtag Explains Why He Didn't Patent It . 2016-03-19 . Business Insider.