2001 in science

• February 12 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lands in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
• June 21 – Solar eclipse of June 21, 2001, a total eclipse.
• August 8 – NASA's Genesis spacecraft is launched.
• October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles (180 km) of Jupiter's moon Io.
• November 27 – The Hubble Space Telescope detects sodium in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b, the first exoplanet atmosphere to be measured.
• December 14 – Solar eclipse of December 14, 2001, an annular eclipse.

• January 8 – The first animal from an endangered species produced by cloning, a gaur named Noah, is born at Trans Ova Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa. He dies within 48 hours of a common dysentery.{{cite news|date=2001-01-12|publisher=Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.|title=First cloned endangered animal was born at 7:30 pm on Monday, 8 January 2001|accessdate=2006-09-18|url=http://www.advancedcell.com/press-release/advanced-cell-technology-inc-announced-that-the-first-cloned-endangered-animal-was-born-at-730-pm-on-monday-january-8-2001|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531142827/http://www.advancedcell.com/press-release/advanced-cell-technology-inc-announced-that-the-first-cloned-endangered-animal-was-born-at-730-pm-on-monday-january-8-2001|archivedate=2008-05-31}}{{cite web|first=Britt|last=Bailey|title=Cloning the Gaur|url=http://environmentalcommons.org/cetos/articles/cloninggaur.html|publisher=CETOS|year=2000|accessdate=2011-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228161917/http://environmentalcommons.org/cetos/articles/cloninggaur.html|archive-date=February 28, 2008|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}
• January – The second animal from an endangered species produced by cloning, a European mouflon lamb, is born in Italy.{{cite web|first=Helen|last=Briggs|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1573309.stm|title=Endangered sheep cloned|publisher=BBC News|date=2001-10-01|accessdate=2011-11-02}}
• February – The publicly funded Human Genome Project, led by Francis Collins and the privately funded Celera effort, led by Craig Venter simultaneously publish their decoding of the human genome (in Nature and Science, respectively).
• April 6 – Linda Partridge and colleagues publish their identification of the role of a specific gene in animal ageing.{{cite journal|title=Extension of Life-Span by Loss of CHICO, a Drosophila Insulin Receptor Substrate Protein|author=Clancy, David J.|journal=Science|date=2001-04-06|volume=292|issue=5514|pages=104–106|doi=10.1126/science.1057991|display-authors=etal|pmid=11292874|bibcode=2001Sci...292..104C|s2cid=30331471|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=bioscifacpub}}
• April 19 – Pygmy three-toed sloth first described.{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=R. P.|last2=Handley Jr.|first2=C. O.|title=A new species of three-toed sloth (Mammalia: Xenarthra) from Panama, with a review of the genus Bradypus|journal=Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington|volume=114|issue=1|pages=1–33|year=2001|url=https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofb1142001biol|accessdate=2016-06-13}} {{open access}}
• Craig Venter and Mark Adams complete the genetic map of the laboratory mouse.
• Fossil remains of the whale Rodhocetus balochistanensis found in Balochistan province, Pakistan, by Philip D. Gingerich.{{cite web|url=http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=293|title=Philip D. Gingerich Ph.D.|publisher=University of Michigan|work=Expert List|accessdate=2011-11-02|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090714132040/http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=293|archive-date=July 14, 2009|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}

• February 15 – Production of a capsule-based fibre-reinforced polymer composite self-healing material is announced.{{cite journal|last1=White|first1=Scott R.|last2=Sottos|first2=Nancy R.|last3=Geubelle|first3=P. H.|last4=Moore|first4=J. S.|last5=Kessler|first5=M. R.|last6=Sriram|first6=S. R.|last7=Brown|first7=E. N.|last8=Viswanathan|first8=S.|title=Autonomic healing of polymer composites|journal=Nature|date=2001-02-15|volume=409|issue=6822|pages=794–797|doi=10.1038/35057232|pmid=11236987|bibcode=2001Natur.409..794W |s2cid=11334883|authorlink2=Nancy Sottos}}

• January 9 – Apple Inc. releases the iTunes media player (modified from SoundJam MP).
• January 15 – Wikipedia launches on the internet.
• May – Tim Berners-Lee and colleagues name the Semantic Web.{{cite journal|last=Berners-Lee|first=Tim|author2=Hendler, James|author3=Lassila, Ora|title=The Semantic Web|journal=Scientific American|date=May 17, 2001|volume=284|issue=5|pages=34–43|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0501-34|bibcode=2001SciAm.284e..34B |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-semantic-web&print=true|accessdate=2012-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081114135540/http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-semantic-web&print=true|archive-date=November 14, 2008|url-status=dead}}
• August 24 – Windows XP personal computer operating system released by Microsoft; it is available for retail sale on October 25.
• October 23 – Apple Inc. unveil the first generation iPod portable media player.
• December 1–2 – The Budapest Open Access Initiative, a public statement of principles promoting open access to research literature, is launched at a conference convened in Budapest by the Open Society Institute.
• December – The C# programming language specification is released.
• In quantum computing, the first working 7-qubit NMR computer is demonstrated at IBM's Almaden Research Center, demonstrating Shor's algorithm.
• Chatterbot Eugene Goostman is developed.
• The Walkman Circ is released.

• July 2 – The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools in the United States.
• Adult-onset basal ganglia disease caused by Ferritin light chain (FTL) mutations is described.

• July – First fossil skull fragments of the hominid 'Toumaï' (Sahelanthropus tchadensis; 7 million years BP) found by a team led by Michel Brunet in Chad.{{cite web|work=TchadActuel|url=http://www.tchadactuel.com/n6.php?2006/10/05/23-toumai-histoire-des-sciences-et-histoire-dhommes-alain-beauvilain|title=Toumaï: Histoire des Sciences et Histoire d'Hommes|first=Alain|last=Beauvilain|date=2006-10-05|accessdate=2012-03-15|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308103755/http://www.tchadactuel.com/n6.php?2006%2F10%2F05%2F23-toumai-histoire-des-sciences-et-histoire-dhommes-alain-beauvilain|archivedate=March 8, 2012|df=mdy}}{{cite web|title=Toumaï|url=http://toumai.site.voila.fr/2.humanadventure.html|first=Alain|last=Beauvilain|accessdate=2012-03-15|archive-date=March 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306210453/https://www.118712.fr/sortir.html|url-status=dead}}

{{main|2001 in philosophy}}

• Francisco-Miguel Marqués and co-workers at the Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds in Caen claim to detect a tetraneutron;{{cite journal|last=Marqués|first=F. M.|display-authors=etal|year=2002|title=Detection of neutron clusters|journal=Physical Review C|volume=65|issue=4|pages=044006|doi=10.1103/PhysRevC.65.044006|arxiv=nucl-ex/0111001|bibcode=2002PhRvC..65d4006M|s2cid=37431352}} reproducibility of this observation has not been possible.

• Nobel Prizes
• Physics – Eric Allin Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl E. Wieman
• Chemistry – William S. Knowles, Ryōji Noyori, K. Barry Sharpless
• Medicine – Leland H. Hartwell, R. Timothy Hunt, Paul M. Nurse
• Turing Award: Ole-Johan Dahl, Kristen Nygaard
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Harry Blackmore Whittington

• February 9 – Herbert A. Simon (b. 1916), American polymath, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.{{cite journal |title=Herbert A. Simon, 1916-2001 |last1=Edward Feigenbaum |date=2001 |journal=Science |volume=291 |issue=5511 |pages=2107 |doi=10.1126/science.1060171 |s2cid=180480666 |author1-link=Edward Feigenbaum }}
• February 13 – Ugo Fano (b. 1912), Italian-born American physicist.{{Cite journal | last1 = Clark | first1 = Charles W. | journal = Nature | title = Obituary: Ugo Fano (1912–2001)| volume = 410 | issue = 6825 | pages = 164 | doi = 10.1038/35065786 | year = 2001 | bibcode = 2001Natur.410..164C | s2cid = 26743870 | doi-access = free }}
• February 24 – Claude Shannon (b. 1916), American mathematician.
• March 31 – Clifford Shull (b. 1915), American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/apr/07/guardianobituaries.physicalsciences|title=Clifford Shull|date=April 7, 2001|newspaper=The Guardian|author=Pearce Wright|access-date=April 8, 2021}}
• May 5 – Wang Yinglai (b. 1907), Chinese biochemist.
• May 8 – William T. Stearn (b. 1911), English botanist.
• May 28 – Francisco Varela (b. 1946), Chilean biologist and philosopher.
• June 4 – Lu Jiaxi (b. 1915), Chinese physical chemist.
• June 18 – René Dumont (b. 1904), French agronomist.
• June 26 – John F. Yardley (b. 1925), American aeronautical engineer.
• August 9 – Sir Alec Skempton (b. 1914), English pioneer of soil science and engineering historian.
• August 15 – Kateryna Yushchenko (b. 1919), Ukrainian computer scientist and academic.{{cite journal|last=Perevozchikova |first=O. L. |title=Ekaterina Logvinovna Yushchenko |journal=Cybernetics and Systems Analysis |volume=45 |number=6 | year=2009| page=843|doi=10.1007/s10559-009-9161-x |s2cid=116901283 }}
• August 20 – Sir Fred Hoyle (b. 1915), English astronomer and science fiction writer.{{Cite journal | last1 = Burbidge | first1 = G. | author-link = Geoffrey Burbidge| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2003.0013 | title = Sir Fred Hoyle. 24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001 Elected FRS 1957 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 49 | pages = 213–247 | year = 2003 | doi-access = free }}
• August 31 – Doris Calloway (Nesheim) (b. 1923), American nutritionist.
• September 2 – Christiaan Barnard (b. 1922), South African cardiac surgeon.{{cite news | title=Autopsy confirms asthma killed Barnard | date= 5 September 2001 | url =http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main_old.php?id=4655&archive=1 | work =Cyprus Mail | access-date =15 March 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927202905/http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main_old.php?id=4655&archive=1 |archive-date = 27 September 2007}}
• October 31 – Warren Elliot Henry (b. 1909), African American physicist.
• November 30 – Robert Tools (b. 1942), American first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart, after 151 days without a living heart.
• December 5 – Franco Rasetti (b. 1901), Italian American nuclear physicist.
• December 12 – Robert Schommer (b. 1946), American astronomer.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:2001 In Science}}

Category:21st century in science

Category:2000s in science