2009 in science

The year 2009 involved numerous significant scientific events and discoveries, some of which are listed below. 2009 was designated the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations.^[1]

Events, discoveries and inventions

January

• 1 January – In
  DNA nanotubes.^[2]
• 3 January – The Bitcoin cryptocurrency network is created when the developer known as Satoshi Nakamoto mines the genesis block of its blockchain.^[3]
• 6 January – NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovers 12 new gamma-ray-only pulsars, and has detected gamma-ray pulses from 18 others.^[4]
• 26 January – An annular solar eclipse takes place.^[5]
• January – The first animal from an
  Pyrenean Ibex, is born alive, but dies seven minutes later due to physical defects in its lungs.^[6]

• 1 February – The
  EPIRBs and other emergency beacons.^[7]
• 2 February – Omid, Iran's first domestically built satellite, is successfully launched from Semnan Space Center into low Earth orbit;^[8] it re-enters the atmosphere on 25 April.
• 5 February – 28 individual
  La Guajira, Colombia.^[9][10]
• 10 February – 2009 satellite collision: The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit takes place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide and destroy each other over Siberia.^[11]
• 24 February –
  non-periodic comet, makes its closest approach to Earth, peaking in brightness between magnitude +4 and magnitude +6.^[12]
• Iranian scientists find that the way in which traditional timber-framed constructions are built makes them earthquake-resistant.^[13]

March

• 7 March – The
  Kepler space observatory is successfully launched, and begins its search for exoplanets.^[14]
• 12 March – Dartmouth researchers have found a way to develop more robust “quantum gates,” which are the elementary building blocks of quantum circuits.^[15]
• 27 March – Iranian researches found that drinking hot
  oesophageal cancer.^[16]

• 3 April – Dr. Yinfa Ma develops a method for pre-cancer screening that uses urine samples for detection. Ma hopes to be able to predict types of cancer as well as severity.[17]
• 4 April – A new method developed by
  Cornell biological engineers offers an efficient way to make proteins for use in medicine or industry without the use of live cells.^[18]
• 5 April – Japanese engineers build a childlike robot, the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, and report that it is slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship.^[19]

May

• 11–24 May – STS-125, the last Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, takes place.^[20]
• 19 May –
  Darwinius masillae, an evolutionary "missing link" with features similar to lemurs, monkeys, and humans.^[21]

• 22 July – A
  total solar eclipse – the longest-lasting total eclipse of the 21st century – takes place.^[22]
• 23 July – Two teams of Chinese researchers create live mice from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.[23]

September

• 3 September – Saturn's rings cross the plane of the Earth's orbit. This was the first such crossing since May 22, 1995, and another will not occur until March 23, 2025.^[24]
• 29 September – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft makes its final flyby of Mercury, decreasing velocity enough for its orbital capture in 2011.^[25]

October

• 1 October – Paleontologists announce the discovery of an Ardipithecus ramidus fossil skeleton, deeming it the oldest fossil skeleton of a human ancestor yet found.^[26]
• 20 October – European astronomers discover 32 new exoplanets.^[27]

December

• 31 December
  • A partial lunar eclipse is visible from most of Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.^[28]
  • The SB ("
    International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology and Biotechnology Protocols and Researches (ISMCBBPR).^[29][30]

• 2009 Abel Prize:
  Mikhail Gromov

Nobel Prize

• 2009
  Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak
• 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics: Charles K. Kao, Willard Boyle and George E. Smith
• 2009
  Ada E. Yonath

Deaths

• 2 January – Olgierd Zienkiewicz, Polish-British civil engineer (b. 1921).
• 11 January –
  solvent-accessible surface (b. 1925
  ).
• 14 January –
  Aron Arthur Moscona, American developmental biologist (b. 1921
  ).
• 26 January –
  Nina L. Etkin, American anthropologist and biologist (b. 1948
  ).
• 30 January – Rudolf Trümpy, Swiss geologist (b. 1921).
• 11 February – Willem Johan Kolff, American physician, inventor of artificial organs (b. 1911).^[31]
• 2 March – Jacob T. Schwartz, American mathematician, and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (b. 1930).
• 11 March – David Medved, American physicist (b. 1926).
• 22 March – John L. Harper, British biologist, specializing in ecology and plant population biology (b. 1925).
• 9 April –
  army ants (b. 1931
  ).
• 2 May –
  naturalist (b. 1921
  ).
• 19 May – Robert F. Furchgott, American biochemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1916).
• 21 May –
  ornithologist, automobile accident (b. 1923
  ).
• 31 May –
  biochemical evolution (b. 1911
  ).
• 6 June –
  immunologist and Nobel laureate (b. 1916
  ).
• 8 June –
  organic chemist (b. 1917
  ).
• 10 June – John A. Eddy, American astronomer (b. 1931).
• 20 June –
  German American biochemist who led a team that was responsible for the first organic synthesis of an enzyme, a ribonuclease (b. 1922
  ).
• 13 August –
  aeronautical engineer (b. 1924
  ).
• 29 August –
  virologist, microbiologist and epidemiologist (b. 1927
  ).
• 9 September
  • Patricia Bergquist, New Zealand scientist who specialized in anatomy and taxonomy (b. 1933).
  • Aage Niels Bohr, Danish nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1922
    ).
• 12 September –
  humanitarian and Nobel laureate (b. 1914
  ).
• 18 September – Mahlon Hoagland, American biochemist who discovered transfer RNA (tRNA) (b. 1921).
• 6 October –
  pathologist and science administrator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (b. 1926
  ).
• 14 October – Francis Muguet, French chemist who advocated open access to information (b. 1955).
• 18 October – Ignacio Ponseti, Menorcan-born pediatric orthopedist (b. 1914).
• 27 October – Paul Zamecnik, American scientist who played a central role in the early history of molecular biology (b. 1912).
• 29 October – Bei Shizhang, Chinese biologist and founder of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (b. 1903).
• 8 November –
  hydrogen bomb
  .
• 3 November –
  bioinformatician and open source advocate (b. 1972
  ).
• 9 November – Don Beaven, New Zealand medical researcher in the area of diabetes treatment and prevention (b. 1924).
• 29 November – Andrew Donald Booth, British physicist and computer scientist (b. 1918).
• 3 December –
  meteorites (b. 1917
  ).
• 8 December –
  entomologist (b. 1913
  ).
• 17 December – Samuel Victor Perry, English biochemist who was a pioneer in the field of muscle biochemistry (b. 1918).
• 21 December – Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1918).

See also

• List of years in science
• 2009 in spaceflight
• List of emerging technologies

References