The year 1999 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Aeronautics

* February 27 – While trying to circumnavigation, circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in their balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes. * March 3–20 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones (aeronaut), Brian Jones successfully complete a non-stop circumnavigation of the world in a hot air balloon.

Astronomy and space exploration

* January 31 – January 1999 lunar eclipse, A total penumbral lunar eclipse * February 7 – Stardust (spacecraft), Stardust is launched on a mission to collect samples of a comet coma (cometary), coma, and return them to Earth. * February 16 – Solar eclipse of February 16, 1999, Annular solar eclipse, visible from Australia. * July 20 – Mercury program: ''Liberty Bell 7'' is raised from the Atlantic Ocean. * July 28 – July 1999 lunar eclipse, Partial lunar eclipse, visible from Australia, eastern Asia, and western North America. * July 31 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface. * August 11 – Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, Total solar eclipse, visible from Europe, across the Middle East, and ending in India. *December 16 – The Beethoven Burst (GRB 991216) is one of the most powerful detected Gamma-ray bursts. * NASA loses two Mars probes, the ''Mars Climate Orbiter'' and the Mars Polar Lander. * The Subaru (telescope), Subaru 8.3 m and Gemini telescope, Gemini North 8.1 m reflecting telescopes open at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. * The Cetus Dwarf galaxy is discovered. * M–sigma relation first presented.

Biology

* November 1 – Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds comes into force. * Late – Pest-exclusion fence around Zealandia (wildlife sanctuary) in Wellington, New Zealand, completed. * The bacterium ''Thiomargarita namibiensis'' is discovered off the coast of Namibia. At 0.3mm in diameter, it is largest bacteria discovered.

Chemistry

* Oganesson, Elements 118 and Livermorium, 116 are claimed to be made for the first time. Later retracted when results could not be replicated.

Computer science

* March 26 – The Melissa worm attacks the Internet. * June – defines HTTP/1.1, the version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol in common use. * September 21 – David Bowie's ''Hours (David Bowie album), Hours'' becomes the first complete music album by a major artist available to download over the Internet in advance of the physical release. * First working 3-qubit NMR computer demonstrated at IBM's Almaden Research Center. First execution of Grover's algorithm. * Probable date – First emojis introduced, in Japan.

Geology

* January 25 – A 6.0 Richter magnitude scale, Richter scale hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,000. * August 17 – The 7.6 1999 İzmit earthquake, İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.

History of science and technology

* Boris Chertok publishes «Ракеты и люди» (''Rockets and people''), a history of the Soviet rocket program.

Mathematics

* Eric M. Rains and Neil Sloane extend tree counting. * Thomas Callister Hales proves the honeycomb conjecture.

Paleontology

* First fossil of ''Kenyanthropus'' Pliocene hominin discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya.

Physics

* June 18 – Bulgaria becomes a member of CERN. * October 25 – Randall–Sundrum model presented by Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum.

Physiology and medicine

* Huda Zoghbi demonstrates that Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene MECP2.

Telecommunications

* January 19 – The first BlackBerry is released, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network.

Awards

* Nobel Prizes ** Nobel Prize in Physics, Physics – Gerardus 't Hooft, Martinus J.G. Veltman ** Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemistry – Ahmed H. Zewail ** Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Medicine – Günter Blobel * Turing Award: Fred Brooks * Wollaston Medal, Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Frederick Dewey

Deaths

* February 21 – Gertrude B. Elion (b. 1918 in science, 1918), Americans, American pharmacologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. * February 25 – Glenn T. Seaborg (b. 1912 in science, 1912), American physical chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry. * March 17 – Herbert E. Grier (b. 1911 in science, 1911), American electrical engineer. * April 28 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow (b. 1921 in science, 1921), American physicist, Nobel laureate in Physicist. * May 8 – Edward Abraham (b. 1913 in science, 1913), English people, English biochemist. * May 26 – Waldo Semon (b. 1898 in science, 1898), American inventor. * July 8 – Pete Conrad (b. 1930 in science, 1930), American astronaut. * November 11 – Vivian Fuchs (b. 1908 in science, 1908), English geologist and List of explorers, explorer. * November 25 – Pierre Bézier (b. 1910 in science, 1910), French engineer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1999 In Science 1999 in science, 20th century in science 1990s in science