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Astronomy

• February 23 – Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.
• Asteroid 7816 Hanoi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
• 10500 Nishi-koen is discovered.¹

Biochemistry

• December – Yoshizumi Ishino discovers the DNA sequence of CRISPR.²³
• Piotr Chomczynski and Nicoletta Sacchi publish their acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction protocol.⁴⁵

Computing

• Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language via the comp.sources.misc newsgroup.
• HyperCard is released by Apple Inc., an early example of hypermedia which inspires the World Wide Web.
• Thomas Knoll and John Knoll develop the first version of Photoshop.

Genetics

• November 6 – Florida rapist Tommy Lee Andrews is the first person to be convicted as a result of DNA fingerprinting.⁶

History of science

• Robert V. Bruce publishes The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876.

Mathematics

• Gödel's ontological proof of the existence of God is published posthumously.⁷
• The Abelian sandpile model, the first discovered example of a dynamical system displaying self-organized criticality, is published by Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld.⁸

Medicine

• March 20 – The United States Food and Drug Administration for the first time approves an antiretroviral drug for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, zidovudine, also known as AZT (azidothymidine) or Retrovir.⁹
• May – The name chronic fatigue syndrome first appears in the medical literature.¹⁰
• May 11 – The first heart-lung transplant takes place.
• August 31 – The FDA for the first time approves a statin, lovastatin.¹¹¹²
• September 5 - The first successful surgical separation of craniopagus twins is done by Dr. Ben Carson.
• December 29 – Prozac makes its debut in the U.S.

Paleoanthropology

• January 1 – The 'Mitochondrial Eve' hypothesis is proposed.¹³

Paleontology

• First fossils of Argentinosaurus found.

Physics

• March 18 – Woodstock of physics, the marathon session of the American Physical Society's meeting featuring 51 presentations concerning the science of high-temperature superconductors.
• Harry J. Lipkin names the pentaquark.¹⁴

Technology

• December 1 – Channel Tunnel digging commences.
• Tinker Hatfield designs the Nike Air Max.
• Maglite introduces the 2AAA Mini Maglite flashlight, targeted for medical and industrial applications.

Zoology

• June 17 – The last known purebred dusky seaside sparrow, "Orange Band", dies in Florida.¹⁵
• Varroa destructor, an invasive parasite of honeybees, is found in the United States.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics – J. Georg Bednorz, Karl Alexander Müller
  • Chemistry – Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles J. Pedersen
  • Medicine – Susumu Tonegawa
• Turing Award – John Cocke
• Wollaston Medal for Geology – Claude Jean Allègre

Births

• June 10 – James Maynard, English mathematician¹⁶

Deaths

• March 19 – Louis de Broglie (b. 1892), French physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1929).
• March 26 – Gwyn Macfarlane (b. 1907), British hematologist.
• October 2 – Peter Medawar (b. 1915), British immunologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1960).
• October 13 – Walter Houser Brattain (b. 1902), American physicist.
• October 20 – Andrey Kolmogorov (b. 1903), Russian mathematician.
• December 2 – Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (b. 1914), Belarusian astrophysicist.
• December 7 – Helen Porter (b. 1899), English plant physiologist.

References

1. Schmadel, Lutz D. (10 June 2012). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 740. ISBN 978-3-642-29718-2. 978-3-642-29718-2 ↩

2. Ishino, Y.; Shinagawa, H.; Makino, K.; Amemura, M.; Nakata, A. (1987). "Nucleotide sequence of the iap gene, responsible for alkaline phosphatase isozyme conversion in Escherichia coli, and identification of the gene product". Journal of Bacteriology. 169 (12): 5429–33. doi:10.1128/jb.169.12.5429-5433.1987. PMC 213968. PMID 3316184. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC213968 ↩

3. "CRISPR Natural History in Bacteria". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2019-04-01. https://www.quantamagazine.org/crispr-natural-history-in-bacteria-20150206/ ↩

4. Chomczynski, P.; Sacchi, N. (1987). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction". Analytical Biochemistry. 162 (1): 156–159. doi:10.1016/0003-2697(87)90021-2. PMID 2440339. /wiki/Analytical_Biochemistry ↩

5. Chomczynski, P.; Sacchi, N. (2006). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction: Twenty-something years on". Nature Protocols. 1 (2): 581–585. doi:10.1038/nprot.2006.83. PMID 17406285. S2CID 28653075. /wiki/Nature_Protocols ↩

6. "Gene Technology". Txtwriter.com. 1987-11-06. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2010-04-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20100611151239/http://txtwriter.com/Backgrounders/Genetech/GEpage14.html ↩

7. Gödel, Kurt (1995). "Ontological Proof". Collected Works: Unpublished Essays & Lectures. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. pp. 388, 403–404. ISBN 0-19-514722-7. 0-19-514722-7 ↩

8. Bak, P.; Tang, C.; Wiesenfeld, K. (1987). "Self-organized criticality: an explanation of 1/ƒ noise". Physical Review Letters. 59 (4): 381–4. Bibcode:1987PhRvL..59..381B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.59.381. PMID 10035754. S2CID 7674321. /wiki/Physical_Review_Letters ↩

9. Cimons, Marlene (21 March 1987). "U.S. Approves Sale of AZT to AIDS Patients". Los Angeles Times. p. 1. /wiki/Los_Angeles_Times ↩

10. Buchwald, Dedra; Sullivan, John L.; Komaroff, Anthony L. (May 1987). "Frequency of 'Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection' in a General Medical Practice". Journal of the American Medical Association. 257 (17): 2303–7. doi:10.1001/jama.257.17.2303. PMID 3033338. Retrieved 2011-07-29. /wiki/Dedra_Buchwald ↩

11. FDA Orange Book Detail for application N019643 showing approval for 20 mg tablets on August 31, 1987, and 40 mg tablets on December 14, 1988 http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ob/docs/obdetail.cfm?Appl_No=019643&TABLE1=OB_Rx ↩

12. Endo, Akira (October 2004). "The origin of the statins". Atherosclerosis Supplements. 5 (3): 125–30. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosissup.2004.08.033. ISSN 1567-5688. PMID 15531285. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

13. Cann, Rebecca L.; Stoneking, Mark; Wilson, Allan C. (1 January 1987). "Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution". Nature. 325 (6099): 31–36. Bibcode:1987Natur.325...31C. doi:10.1038/325031a0. PMID 3025745. S2CID 4285418. /wiki/Allan_Wilson_(biologist) ↩

14. Lipkin, H. J. (1987). "New possibilities for exotic hadrons — anticharmed strange baryons". Physics Letters B. 195 (3): 484–488. Bibcode:1987PhLB..195..484L. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(87)90055-4. /wiki/Physics_Letters_B ↩

15. Newsweek 9 June 2008 p. 45. /wiki/Newsweek ↩

16. Klarreich, Erica (2022-07-05). "A Solver of the Hardest Easy Problems About Prime Numbers: On his way to winning a Fields Medal". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 2022-07-05. https://www.quantamagazine.org/number-theorist-james-maynard-wins-the-fields-medal-20220705/ ↩