1984 in science

• February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.
• The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States converts the 36-foot radio telescope on Kitt Peak (originally built in 1967) to the ARO 12m Radio Telescope.

• First known case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in England.{{cite news|first=David|last=Brown|title=The 'recipe for disaster' that killed 80 and left a £5bn bill|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1371964/The-recipe-for-disaster-that-killed-80-and-left-a-5bn-bill.html|accessdate=2014-12-02|date=2001-06-19|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London}}
• The enzyme telomerase is discovered by Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn in the ciliate Tetrahymena.{{cite journal|last1=Greider|first1=Carol W.|last2=Blackburn|first2=Elizabeth H.|title=Identification of a Specific Telomere Terminal Transferase Activity in Tetrahymena Extracts|journal=Cell|volume=43|issue=2:1|pages=405–13|date=December 1985|pmid=3907856|doi=10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9|doi-access=free}}
• Danish physiologist Steen Willadsen first successfully uses cells from early embryos to clone a mammal (sheep) by nuclear transfer at the British Agricultural Research Council's Institute of Animal Physiology, Cambridge.{{cite journal|last=Willadsen|first=S. M.|year=1986|title=Nuclear transplantation in sheep embryos|journal=Nature|volume=320|issue=6057|pages=63–65|doi=10.1038/320063a0|pmid=3951549|bibcode=1986Natur.320...63W|s2cid=4257911 }}{{cite journal|last=Willadsen|first=S. M.|year=1989|title=Cloning of sheep and cow embryos|journal=Genome|volume=31|issue=2|pages=956–62|doi=10.1139/g89-167|pmid=2698854 }}

• Peter Kramer{{cite journal|doi=10.1107/S0108767384001203|title=On periodic and non-periodic space fillings of E^m obtained by projection|year=1984|last1=Kramer|first1=P.|last2=Neri|first2=R.|journal=Acta Crystallographica|volume=A40|page=580|issue=5|bibcode=1984AcCrA..40..580K }} and Dan Shechtman{{cite journal|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.1951|title=Metallic Phase with Long-Range Orientational Order and No Translational Symmetry|year=1984|last1=Shechtman|first1=D.|last2=Blech|first2=I.|last3=Gratias|first3=D.|last4=Cahn|first4=J.|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=53|pages=1951–4|bibcode=1984PhRvL..53.1951S|issue=20|doi-access=free}} publish their discoveries of what will soon afterwards be named quasicrystals.{{cite journal|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.2477|title=Quasicrystals: A New Class of Ordered Structures|year=1984|last1=Levine|first1=Dov|last2=Steinhardt|first2=Paul Joseph|authorlink2=Paul Steinhardt|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=53|pages=2477–80|bibcode=1984PhRvL..53.2477L|issue=26|doi-access=free}}
• Hiroshi Kobayashi and colleagues announce synthesis of tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate ("BARF").{{cite journal|last1=Nishida|first1=H.|first2=N.|last2=Takada|first3=M.|last3=Yoshimura|first4=T.|last4=Sonods|first5=H.|last5=Kobayshi|title=Tetrakis(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate: Highly Lipophilic Stable Anionic Agent for Solvent-Extraction of Cations|journal=Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan|year=1984|volume=57|issue=9|pages=2600–2604|doi=10.1246/bcsj.57.2600|doi-access=}}

• January 24 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States. It will be the first successful PC to use a graphical user interface.
• The first edition of language documentation Common Lisp the Language (known as CLtL1) is published in the United States.

• Robert Gwyn Macfarlane publishes Alexander Fleming: The Man and the Myth.

• The fossil skeleton of the hominid "Turkana Boy" is discovered in Kenya.

• February 3 – Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
• April 22 – Dr. Robert Gallo and Margaret Heckler of United States Public Health Service announce the discovery of HTLV-III as the virus that causes AIDS.
• May 10 – Barbara H. Bowman and Oliver Smithies show that variations in haptoglobins are due to genetic polymorphisms.{{cite journal|first1=Nobuyo|last1=Maeda|first2=Funmei|last2=Yang|first3=Don R.|last3=Barnett|first4=Barbara H.|last4=Bowman|first5=Oliver|last5=Smithies|title=Duplication within the haptoglobin Hp 2 gene|journal=Nature|volume=309|issue=5964|pages=131–135|year=1984|doi=10.1038/309131a0|pmid=6325933|bibcode=1984Natur.309..131M|s2cid=4368535 }}

• May 5 – Itaipu Dam in South America begins to generate hydroelectricity.
• July 21 – In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Carlo Rubbia, Simon van der Meer
• Chemistry – Robert Bruce Merrifield
• Medicine – Niels K. Jerne, Georges J. F. Köhler, César Milstein
• Turing Award – Niklaus Wirth

• May 14 – Mark Zuckerberg, American computer programmer and entrepreneur, co-founder of social media platform Facebook
• December 2 – Maryna Viazovska, Ukrainian-born mathematician{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3522571-ukrainian-viazovska-wins-fields-medal-2022.html|title=Ukrainian Viazovska wins Fields Medal 2022|website=www.ukrinform.net|date=July 2022|access-date=2022-07-09|archive-date=2022-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707010822/https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-society/3522571-ukrainian-viazovska-wins-fields-medal-2022.html|url-status=live}}

• January 8 – Eerik Kumari (b. 1912), Estonian ornithologist and academic
• February 21 – Anna Baetjer (b. 1899), American toxicologist.
• April 8 – Pyotr Kapitsa (b. 1894), Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• April 15 – Grete Hermann (b. 1901), German mathematician and philosopher
• May 13 – Stanislaw Ulam (b. 1909), Polish American mathematician.
• May 24 – Sir Stanley Hooker (b. 1907), English aeronautical engineer.
• August 6 – Abraham Lilienfeld (b. 1920), American epidemiologist.
• August 11 – George Streisinger (b. 1927), Hungarian American molecular biologist, the first person to clone a vertebrate.
• October 20 – Paul Dirac (b. 1902), English-born physicist.
• November 20 – Charles C. Conley (b. 1933), American mathematician working on dynamical systems.
• December 20 – Stanley Milgram (b. 1933), American social psychologist.

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Category:20th century in science

Category:1980s in science