1998 in science

The year 1998 in science and technology involved many events, some of which are included below.

Astronomy and space exploration

* January 6 - The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon and later found evidence for frozen water on the moon's surface.
* January 8 - Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
* March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo spaceprobe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
* March 5 - NASA announced that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon had found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fuelling station.
* July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
* October 29 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962.
* November 20 - Zarya, the first module of the International Space Station, was launched.
* The first of four 8.4 m reflecting telescopes opens in the Very Large Telescope program of the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal in Chile.

Biology

* July 17 - Biologists report in the journal "Science" how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, "Treponema pallidum".
* February 19 - RNA interference first elucidated in C. elegans.

Computer science

* February 10 - XML is published as a recommendation of the W3C.
* June 2 - The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan.
* The first working 2-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance computer is demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley.

Geology

* February 4 - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
* March 14 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
* May 30 - A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan killing up to 5,000.
* July 17 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.

Mathematics

* Luca Cardelli and Andrew D. Gordon develop ambient calculus.
* Thomas Hales (almost certainly) proves the Kepler conjecture.

Medicine

* January 14 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).

Technology

* April 5 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū, at a cost of about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.

Awards

*Fields Prize in Mathematics: Richard Ewen Borcherds, William Timothy Gowers, Maxim Kontsevich and Curtis T. McMullen
* Nobel Prize
** Physics - Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel C. Tsui
** Chemistry - Walter Kohn, John Pople
** Medicine - Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, Ferid Murad
* Turing Award: Jim Gray
* Wollaston Medal for Geology: Karl Karekin Turekian

Births

Deaths

* March 15 - Benjamin Spock (b. 1903), pediatrician, writer.
* July 3 - Danielle Bunten Berry (b. 1949), also known as Dan Bunten, software developer.
* July 21 - Alan Shepard (b. 1923), astronaut.
* August 4 - Yuri Artyukhin (b. 1930), cosmonaut.
* August 26 - Frederick Reines (b. 1918), physicist, Nobel laureate.
* December 17 - Claudia Benton, Child Psychologist.
* December 18 - Lev Demin (b. 1926), cosmonaut.