The year 1998 CE in science and technology had many significant events, including those listed below.

See also: 1997 in science, other events in 1998, 1999 in science and the list of years in science

Table of contents

1 Astronomy and space exploration 2 Biology 3 Computer science 4 Geology 5 Mathematics 6 Medicine 7 Technology 8 Awards 9 Births 10 Deaths

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 that the Clementine spaceprobe orbiting the moon had found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
• May 23 - Explorer I ceases transmission.
• 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.
• 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.

Computer science

• 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 the slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).

Technology

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

Awards

• Nobel Prize
  • Physics - Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel C. Tsui
  • Chemistry - Walter Kohn, John A Pople
  • Medicine - Robert F Furchgott, Louis J Ignarro, Ferid Murad
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Karl Karekin Turekian

Births

Deaths

• March 15 - Benjamin Spock, pediatrician, writer
• July 3 - Danielle Bunten Berry, a.k.a. Dan Bunten, software developer
• July 21 - Alan Shepard, astronaut
• August 4 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut
• August 26 - Frederick Reines, physicist Nobellaurette
• December 17 - Claudia Benton, Child Psychologist
• December 18 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut