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2002 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|2002|science}}

{{Science year nav|2002}}

The year 2002 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy and space science

  • February 19 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
  • May 26 – The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
  • June 4 – The ringed dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory.{{cite web |type=2023-08-31 last obs |title=JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 50000 Quaoar ({{mp|2002 LM|60}}) |work=NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |url=https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=Quaoar |access-date=5 July 2024 }}
  • June 6 – 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event: An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters impacts with Earth's atmosphere over the Mediterranean and detonates in mid-air.{{cite web|url=http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-02s.html|title=Near-Earth Objects Pose Threat, General Says|last=Bosker|first=A. J.|date=2002-09-17|website=Space Daily|accessdate=2016-06-04}}
  • June 10 – Solar eclipse of June 10, 2002: Annular solar eclipse.
  • September 25 – 2002 Vitim event: Possible bolide impact in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0925vitim-meteorite/|title=Mysterious Meteorite Dazzles Siberia|last=Alfred|first=Randy|date=2009-09-25|magazine=Wired|access-date=2016-06-04}}
  • December 4 – Solar eclipse of December 4, 2002: Total solar eclipse.

Biology

  • 1 March – DNA barcoding of the dodo is published, confirming it as a member of the Columbidae family.{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.295.5560.1683|last1=Shapiro|first1=Beth|authorlink1=Beth Shapiro|display-authors=etal|year=2002|title=Flight of the Dodo|journal=Science|volume=295|issue=5560|page=1683|pmid=11872833|url=http://pgl.soe.ucsc.edu/dodo_Shapiro02.pdf|access-date=2024-12-22|archive-date=2018-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120150854/https://pgl.soe.ucsc.edu/dodo_Shapiro02.pdf|url-status=live}}
  • 18 April – New suborder of insects, Mantophasmatidae, announced.
  • Publication of Systema Porifera: a guide to the classification of sponges edited by John N. A. Hooper and Rob W. M. Van Soest.Kluwer/Plenum (New York) {{ISBN|0-306-47260-0}} (2 vols.){{cite journal|last=Berry|first=Lorraine|year=2003|title=Soaking up the limelight|journal=Nature|volume=421|issue=6925|page=791|doi=10.1038/421791a|bibcode=2003Natur.421Q.791B|s2cid=766377|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.1082916|title=Invertebrate Zoology: Sorting Sponges: a review|first=Joseph|last=Pawlik|journal=Science|volume=299|issue=5614|pages=1846b–1847|date=2003-03-21|s2cid=85266676}}{{cite journal|last=Chambers|first=Susan|year=2003|title=Systema Porifera|journal=Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems|volume=13|issue=5|pages=461–2|doi=10.1002/aqc.593}}

Cartography

Computer science and cybernetics

  • January 7 – The iMac G4 is introduced by Apple, Inc., as the next generation iMac.
  • March 14 – Prof. Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading in England has part of his nervous system experimentally linked to a computer.{{cite web|title=Cyborg study draws fire|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1886700.stm|publisher=BBC News|date=2002-03-22|accessdate=2010-10-07}} On June 10, he demonstrates the first direct electronic communication between the nervous systems of two humans.
  • September 20 – Release of the Tor anonymity network is announced.{{cite mailing list|last=Dingledine|first=Roger|title=pre-alpha: run an onion proxy now!|mailing-list=or-dev|date=2002-09-20|url=http://archives.seul.org/or/dev/Sep-2002/msg00019.html|accessdate=2008-07-17}}
  • September 23 – The first version of the web browser Firefox is released by the Mozilla Organization.
  • October 1 – The Danger Hiptop is released, the first smartphone to incorporate instant messaging.

Earth sciences

Mathematics

Palaeoarchaeology

Philosophy

{{main|2002 in philosophy}}

Physics

  • March 8 – Claims regarding bubble fusion, in which a table-top apparatus is reported as producing small-scale fusion in a liquid undergoing acoustic cavitation, are published.{{cite journal|last=Taleyarkhan|first=R. P.|author-link = Rusi Taleyarkhan|author2=West, C. D.|author3=Cho, J. S.|author4=Lahey Jr., R. T.|author5=Nigmatulin, R.|author6=Block, R. C.|date=2002-03-08|title=Evidence for Nuclear Emissions During Acoustic Cavitation|pages=1868–73|journal=Science|volume=295|issue=1868|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/hottopics/bubble/index.shtml|doi=10.1126/science.1067589|accessdate=2012-03-15|pmid=11884748|bibcode=2002Sci...295.1868T|s2cid=11405525|issn=0036-8075}}
  • May – Experimental discovery of a new type of radioactivity: the 2-protons radioactivity.{{cite journal|last=Giovinazzo|first=J.|author2=Blank, B.|author3=Chartier, M.|author4=Czajkowski, S.|author5=Fleury, A.|author6=Lopez Jimenez, M. J.|author7=Pravikoff, M. S.|author8=Thomas, J.-C.|author9=de Oliveira Santos, F.|author10=Lewitowicz, M.|author11=Maslov, V.|author12=Stanoiu, M.|author13=Grzywacz, R.|author14=Pfützner, M.|author15=Borcea, C.|author16=Brown, B. A.|name-list-style=amp|date=2002-08-19|title=Two-Proton Radioactivity of F45en|pages=102501|journal=Physical Review Letters|volume=89|issue=10|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.102501|pmid=12225187|bibcode = 2002PhRvL..89j2501G }}{{cite journal|last=Pfützner|first=M.|date=2002-05-28|title=First evidence for the two-proton decay of 45Fe|pages=279–285|journal=The European Physical Journal A|volume=14|issue=3|doi=10.1140/epja/i2002-10033-9|bibcode=2002EPJA...14..279P|display-authors=etal|citeseerx=10.1.1.183.4363|s2cid=120370209}}

Physiology and medicine

  • February – Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells in the eye identified by Samer Hattar and colleagues.{{cite journal|year=2002|title=Melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells: architecture, projections, and intrinsic photosensitivity|journal=Science|volume=295|issue=5557|pages=1065–70|bibcode=2002Sci...295.1065H|doi=10.1126/science.1069609|pmc=2885915|pmid=11834834|author1=Hattar, Samer|display-authors=etal}}{{cite journal|year=2002|title=Phototransduction by retinal ganglion cells that set the circadian clock|journal=Science|volume=295|issue=5557|pages=1070–3|bibcode=2002Sci...295.1070B|doi=10.1126/science.1067262|pmid=11834835|author1=Berson, David M.|s2cid=30745140|display-authors=etal}}
  • May 14 – Red wine is claimed by Spanish researchers to protect against the common cold.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1986514.stm|publisher=BBC News|title=Red wine 'protects from colds'|date=2002-05-14|accessdate=2013-03-21}}
  • June – The gene BRAF is shown to be faulty (mutated) in some human cancers.{{cite journal|author1=Davies, H.|author2=Bignell, G. R.|author3=Cox, C.|author4=Stephens, P.|author5=Edkins, S.|author6=Clegg, S.|author7=Teague, J.|author8=Woffendin, H.|author9=Garnett, M. J.|author10=Bottomley, W.|author11=Davis, N.|author12=Dicks, E.|author13=Ewing, R.|author14=Floyd, Y.|author15=Gray, K.|author16=Hall, S.|author17=Hawes, R.|author18=Hughes, J.|author19=Kosmidou, V.|author20=Menzies, A.|author21=Mould, C.|author22=Parker, A.|author23=Stevens, C.|author24=Watt, S.|author25=Hooper, S.|author26=Wilson, R.|author27=Jayatilake, H.|author28=Gusterson, B. A.|author29=Cooper, C.|author30=Shipley, J.|author31=Hargrave, D.|author32=Pritchard-Jones, K.|author33=Maitland, N.|author34=Chenevix-Trench, G.|author35=Riggins, G. J.|author36=Bigner, D. D.|author37=Palmieri, G.|author38=Cossu, A.|author39=Flanagan, A.|author40=Nicholson, A.|author41=Ho, J. W.|author42=Leung, S. Y.|author43=Yuen, S. T.|author44=Weber, B. L.|author45=Seigler, H. F.|author46=Darrow, T. L.|author47=Paterson, H.|author48=Marais, R.|author49=Marshall, C. J.|author50=Wooster, R.|author51=Stratton, M. R.|author52=Futreal, P. A.|author-link48=Richard Marais|author-link51=Michael Stratton|title=Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer|journal=Nature|volume=417|issue=6892|pages=949–54|date=June 2002|pmid=12068308|doi=10.1038/nature00766|url=http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/121/1/Davis%2CH_2002_pdf.pdf|bibcode=2002Natur.417..949D|s2cid=3071547}}
  • November – Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic begins in Guangdong province of China.{{cite web|url=https://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/index.html|title=Summary of probable SARS cases with onset of illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003|publisher=World Health Organization|year=2004|accessdate=2011-06-24| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110624025825/http://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2004_04_21/en/index.html| archive-date= 24 June 2011 | url-status= live}}
  • December 19 – Clozapine is the first drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for reducing the risk of suicidal behaviour.

Technology

  • November 4 – A Tactical High Energy Laser prototype shoots down an incoming artillery shell.
  • Malcolm C. Smith introduces the inerter in the study of the mechanical network in control theory.{{Cite journal | last1 = Smith | first1 = M. C. | title = Synthesis of mechanical networks: The inerter | doi = 10.1109/TAC.2002.803532 | journal = IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control | volume = 47 | issue = 10 | pages = 1648–1662 | year = 2002 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.227.7188 }}

Awards

Deaths

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 In Science}}

Category:21st century in science

Category:2000s in science