2008 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 2008 in science and technology involved some significant events and discoveries, some of which are listed below.
Events and discoveries
- January 15 – NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's MESSENGERMESSENGERThe MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury...
spacecraft makes the first of its three flybys of MercuryMercury (planet)Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
at an altitude of 200 kilometres (124.3 mi), decreasing its velocity for its 2011 orbital insertion. - February 7 – An annular solar eclipseSolar eclipse of February 7, 2008An annular solar eclipse occurred on February 7, 2008. - Visibility :Centrality was visible from parts of Antarctica. A significant partial eclipse was visible over New Zealand and an a minor partial eclipse was seen from southeastern Australia.- Observations:...
takes place. - March 12 – The CassiniCassini-HuygensCassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...
spacecraft orbits within 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) of EnceladusEnceladus (moon)Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
, its closest encounter yet with the sixth-largest moon of SaturnSaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
. - April 2 – A hybrid humanHumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
-cow embryoEmbryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
survives a third straight day after being fertilized at Newcastle University, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. A director for embryonic stem cellEmbryonic stem cellEmbryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...
laboratories at the Australian Stem Cell CentreAustralian Stem Cell CentreThe Australian Stem Cell Centre - the National Biotechnology Centre of Excellence - is a research and development centre which focusses on regenerative medicine through the use of stem cells. It was founded in 2003, and has received over $100 million in funding in recent years. It is Australia's...
says that the "99-per-cent human" embryo could improve research within the field of human diseases. However, the Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
states that the creation is "monstrous", and says that the later destruction of it is unethical. - June – SpanishSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
surgeon Paolo MacchiariniPaolo MacchiariniPaolo Macchiarini, M.D., Ph.D. is head and chairman of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, as well as professor of surgery at the University of Barcelona in Spain, and at the Hannover Medical School in Hannover, Germany.Dr. Macchiarini completed his...
carries out the world's first tissue-engineeredTissue engineeringTissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions...
whole organ transplantOrgan transplantOrgan transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
, replacing a ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n woman's windpipe made with the patient's own stem cellStem cellThis article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
s. - June 8 – NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's PlutoPlutoPluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
probe New HorizonsNew HorizonsNew Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
crosses the orbit of SaturnSaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, after a journey of over two years. - August 1 – A total solar eclipseSolar eclipse of August 1, 2008A total solar eclipse occurred on August 1, 2008. It had a magnitude of 1.0394 that was visible from a narrow corridor through northern Canada , Greenland, central Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, western Mongolia and China. Occurring north of the arctic circle, it belonged to the so-called midnight sun...
takes place in northern CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and northern China. - September 10 – The Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron ColliderThe Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
(LHC) at CERNCERNThe European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
begins proton beam tests. - September 19 – A magnet in the LHC fails, damaging several other magnets and requiring substantial repairs.
- October 6 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes the second of its three flybys of Mercury.
- October 7 – 2008 TC32008 TC3thumb|right|300px|Ground path of the meteoroid; red line is the path, terminating where it would have hit the ground; green line is the infrasound detection of the explosion; orange crosshairs show METEOSAT IR fireball location; predicted altitudes are listed; exact path and fireball altitude not...
becomes the first Earth-impacting meteoroidMeteoroidA meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor, or colloquially a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite...
spotted and tracked prior to impact. - November 10 – The Martin JetpackMartin Jetpack-References:*http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/jun2010/bw20100615_209271.htm-External links:* * *...
flies for 46 seconds, 13 seconds longer than any previous jetpack.
Deaths
- March 19 – Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. ClarkeSir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
(b. 19171917 in scienceThe year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
), science fiction author and inventor. - April 8 – Graham HigmanGraham HigmanGraham Higman FRS was a leading British mathematician. He is known for his contributions to group theory....
(b. 1917), mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
. - April 13 – John WheelerJohn Archibald WheelerJohn Archibald Wheeler was an American theoretical physicist who was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in explaining the basic principles behind nuclear fission...
(b. 19111911 in scienceThe year 1911 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space science:* June 28 - The Nakhla meteorite lands in the area of Alexandria, Egypt, purportedly killing a dog.-Exploration:...
), theoretical physicist, coined the terms black holeBlack holeA black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
and wormholeWormholeIn physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that would be, fundamentally, a "shortcut" through spacetime. For a simple visual explanation of a wormhole, consider spacetime visualized as a two-dimensional surface. If this surface is folded along a third dimension, it...
. - April 16 – Edward Norton LorenzEdward Norton LorenzEdward Norton Lorenz was an American mathematician and meteorologist, and a pioneer of chaos theory. He discovered the strange attractor notion and coined the term butterfly effect.-Biography:...
(b. 19171917 in scienceThe year 1917 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Awards:* Nobel Prize** Physics - Charles Glover Barkla** Chemistry - not awarded** Medicine - not awarded-Births:...
), mathematician and meteorologistMeteorologyMeteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
, coined the term butterfly effectButterfly effectIn chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state...
. - April 29 – Albert HofmannAlbert HofmannAlbert Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide . He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child...
(b. 19061906 in scienceThe year 1906 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Charles Barkla discovers that each element has a characteristic X-ray and that the degree of penetration of these X-rays is related to the atomic weight of the element.* Mikhail Tsvet first names the...
), chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, synthesizer of LSD. - May 15 – Willis LambWillis LambWillis Eugene Lamb, Jr. was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 together with Polykarp Kusch "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum". Lamb and Kusch were able to precisely determine certain electromagnetic properties of the electron...
(b. 19131913 in scienceThe year 1913 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Chemistry:* Protactinium is first identified by Kasimir Fajans and O. H...
), physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in PhysicsNobel Prize in PhysicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
. - August 5 – Neil Bartlett (b. 19321932 in scienceThe year 1932 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.-Astronomy and space sciences:* Estonian astronomer Ernst Öpik postulates that long-period comets originate in an orbiting cloud at the outermost edge of the Solar System.-Biology:* Geneticist J. B. S...
), chemistChemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
who prepared the first compound of a noble gasNoble gasThe noble gases are a group of chemical elements with very similar properties: under standard conditions, they are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases, with very low chemical reactivity...
See also
- 2008 in archaeology2008 in archaeology-Excavations:* March - The first excavation inside the sarsen circle since 1964 is started at Stonehenge.-Publications:* Barry Cunliffe - Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC-AD 1000 ....
- 2008 in paleontology2008 in paleontology-Angiosperms:-Monocots:-New taxa:-Insects:-Xiphosurans:-Placoderms:-Amphibians:Jenkins, F. A., jr, Shubin, N. H., Gatesy, S. M., and Warren, A., 2008, Gerrothorax pulcherrimus from the Upper Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of East Greenland and a reassessment of head lifting in temnospondyl...
- 2008 in spaceflight2008 in spaceflightThe year 2008 contained several significant events in spaceflight, including the first flyby of Mercury by a spacecraft since 1975, the discovery of water ice on Mars by the Phoenix spacecraft, which landed in May, the first Chinese spacewalk in September, and the launch of the first Indian Lunar...
- List of emerging technologies