Science on the year of 2006 in history

Science

Date	Type	Text
30 Nov 2005 chromosome	science	chromosome (biology) The sequence of the last chromosome in the Human Genome Project is published in the journal Nature.
30 Nov 2005 Baiji	science	Baiji (biology) Baiji declared "functionally extinct".
30 Nov 2005 Western black rhinoceros	science	Western black rhinoceros (biology) Last sighting of the Western black rhinoceros.
30 Nov 2005 Mersenne prime	science	Mersenne prime (mathematics) The great prime search project finds the 44th Mersenne prime.
30 Nov 2005 Abel Prize in Mathematics	science	Abel Prize in Mathematics (awards) Abel Prize in Mathematics: Lennart Carleson
30 Nov 2005 Fields Prize in Mathematics	science	Fields Prize in Mathematics (awards) Fields Prize in Mathematics: Andrei Okounkov, Grigori Perelman (declined), Terence Tao, and Wendelin Werner
15 Jan 2006 spacecraft	science	spacecraft (space exploration) The Stardust spacecraft successfully completes its primary mission of returning samples of cometary and interstellar dust to Earth. Its sample return capsule touches down safely inside its intended landing area in Utah, close to the Army Dugway Proving Ground.
19 Jan 2006 Hobart	science	Hobart (environment) Australian researchers at the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre in Hobart, Tasmania, publish experimental data that matches models of increasing sea level rising.
19 Jan 2006 NASA	science	NASA (space exploration) The NASA spacecraft New Horizons launches successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and leaves Earth's orbit shortly afterwards on its journey to Pluto
24 Jan 2006 Nicholas Shackleton	science	death Nicholas Shackleton Died 24 Jan 2006 at age 68 (born 23 Jun 1937). English geologist and paleoclimatologist who helped identify carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. He studied the ancient climate changes of the Quaternary period, the last 1.8 million years, during which there were periods building up massive ice sheets and mountain ice caps alternating with warm weather when the ice receded. His data showed Ice Ages occurred roughly every 100,000 years, by analysing an ice sheet in Russia and deep-sea fossil shells. He demonstrated that Ice Ages were linked to decreases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Conversely, he warned, the present excessive emissions of that gas into the atmosphere can cause global warming. He was a distant relative of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Arctic explorer.
27 Jan 2006 Scientific misconduct	science	Scientific misconduct (other s) Scientific misconduct: The University of Tokyo announces that Kazunari Taira's experimental results in RNA research are irreproducible.
28 Feb 2006 Owen Chamberlain	science	death Owen Chamberlain Owen Chamberlain (b. 1920), Nobel laureate in physics.
24 Mar 2006 SpaceX	science	SpaceX (space exploration) The maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket ends in failure.
01 May 2006 Kikuo Takano	science	death Kikuo Takano Kikuo Takano (b. 1927), poet and mathematician.
14 May 2006 Bruce Merrifield	science	death Bruce Merrifield Bruce Merrifield (b. 1921), Nobel laureate in chemistry (1984) for developing a rapid, automated system for making peptides.
31 May 2006 Raymond Davis Jr.	science	death Raymond Davis Jr. Raymond Davis Jr. (b. 1914), Nobel laureate in physics (2002) for pioneering the detection of cosmic neutrinos.
15 Jul 2006 Social networking service	science	Social networking service (computer science) Social networking service Twitter launched publicly.
09 Aug 2006 James Van Allen	science	death James Van Allen James Van Allen (b. 1914), space scientist.
15 Aug 2006 Voyager 1	science	Voyager 1 In 2006, Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object, reached 100 astronomical units from the sun - meaning 100 times more distant from the sun than is Earth - about 15,000 million km (9,300 million miles) from the sun. At such great distance, the sun is a mere point of light, so solar energy is not an option, but having a nuclear power source, Voyager 1 continues to beam back information. The spacecraft, launched nearly 30 years earlier, on 5 Sep 1977, had flown beyond the outer planets and reached the heliosheath, the outer edge of our solar system, where the sun's influence wanes. Voyager 1 continues traveling at a speed of about one million miles per day and could cross into interstellar space before 10 years later.
24 Aug 2006 Minor planet Pluto	science	Minor planet Pluto In 2006, Pluto was declassified as a planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) following a vote at their 10-day General Assembly in Prague. It was given status instead as a “dwarf planet,” on account of its small size—smaller than the Moon—and highly elliptical, tilted orbit which overlaps with that of Neptune. However, only 424 of 2,700 astronomers who remained in Prague for the last day of the meeting took part. Those who voted were about only 4% of the world's 10,000 astronomers. The decision was criticized, and a petition was started. The vote established other dwarf planets: Ceres (a small body between Mars and Jupiter) and 2003 UB313 (a small body beyond Pluto, where dozens more potential dwarf planets exist). Thus Neptune became the Solar System's outermost planet, indefinitely.
04 Sep 2006 Meningitis vaccine	science	Meningitis vaccine In 2006, a vaccine for a type of meningitis was offered for the first time in Great Britain for all babies at two, four and 13 months as part of the national childhood immunisation programme. The vaccine is designed for protection against pneumococcal disease which causes meningitis and septicaemia, a very serious infection, with a death rate of 20 per cent. Of children that survive infection, a quarter suffer life-long brain damage, deafness and epilepsy. Babies are particularly vulnerable. The Wyeth pharmaceuticals company, the vaccine supplier, reported that its use in America had shown a significant reduction in cases. An estimated 50 babies a year are expected to be protected from the devastating after-effects of pneumococcal meningitis.
12 Sep 2006 International Space Station	science	International Space Station (space exploration) The construction of the International Space Station is continued for the first time after a hiatus of almost four years.
01 Nov 2006 Sony PRS500	science	Sony PRS500 (computer science) Sony PRS500 e-book reader launched in the United States.
12 Dec 2006 Yangtze freshwater dolphin extinct	science	Yangtze freshwater dolphin extinct In 2006, the Baiji Yangtze freshwater dolphin was presumed functionally extinct when a search expedition ended an intense six-week search for the animal without any results. Scientists from six nations had travelled along the heavily polluted Yangtze River of China on two research ships almost 3,500-km from Yichang near the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai into the Yangtze Delta and back. However, their high-performance optical instruments and underwater microphones detected no signs of the creature. The Baiji is the first large mammal brought to extinction due to human destruction of its habitat. From around 400 Baiji known in the early 1980's, numbers declined to 13 sightings in 1997, and none seen since Sep 2004.

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Science on the year of 2006 in history

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