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This article is a summary of the 2000s in science and technology.


Science

* Using the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...
, scientists studying the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
measured that its age is 13.77 billion years; "solidly supported" that it has been expanding and cooling since the
Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...
; and calculated that the universe is composed of about 4.6%
atoms Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished from each other ...
, 24%
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
, and 71%
dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
. * The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
. Whilst
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's original mission timeline of three months was incorrectly speculated, the mission was tremendously successful overall in the long term, as the MER Mission continued until 2018, lasting nearly 25 times the projected length. * The
Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...
was completed in 2003. * The
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
and
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
funded The Genographic Project. * In 2002, Perelman posted the first of a series of eprints to the arXiv, in which he proved the
Poincaré conjecture In the mathematical field of geometric topology, the Poincaré conjecture (, , ) is a theorem about the characterization of the 3-sphere, which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dimensional space. Originally conjectured b ...
, * 2004 – The astrophysicist and radio astronomer Naomi McClure-Griffiths identifies a new
spiral arm Spiral arms are a defining feature of spiral galaxies. They manifest as spiral-shaped regions of enhanced brightness within the galactic disc. Typically, spiral galaxies exhibit two or more spiral arms. The collective configuration of these arms i ...
of the
Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
galaxy * On 29 July 2005, the discovery of Eris, a
Kuiper Belt The Kuiper belt ( ) is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times ...
object larger than
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
, was announced. In August 2006
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
was "demoted" to a "
dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...
" after being considered a planet for 76 years. Other "dwarf planets" in the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
now include Ceres and Eris. *
Space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...
/
Private spaceflight Private spaceflight is any spaceflight development that is not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA. During the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pionee ...
began with American
Dennis Tito Dennis Anthony Tito (born August 8, 1940) is an American engineer and entrepreneur. During mid-2001, he became the first space tourism, space tourist to fund his own visit to space, when he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of IS ...
, paying Russia US$20 million for a week-long stay to the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
. *The ''
Voyager 1 ''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar medium, interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days afte ...
'' spacecraft entered the heliosheath, marking its departure from the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
. * Scientists discovered water ice on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
in 2009. * AFIS and CODIS became the main forensic tools for fingerprint and genetic code investigation in the industrialized world and some
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...
. *Infraluciferin became the go-to luciferin for in vivo imaging and threatening to replace natural luciferin entirely.


Technology


Information technology

* There was a huge jump in broadband internet usage globally - for example, it constituted only 6% of U.S. internet users in June 2000 and one mid-decade study predicted 62% adoption by 2010. Yet, by February 2007, over 80% of US Internet users were connected via broadband and broadband internet became almost a required standard for quality internet browsing. There were 77.4 million broadband subscribers in the US in December 2008, with 264 million broadband subscribers alone in the top 30 countries at that time. * There was a boom in music downloading and the use of
data compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compressi ...
to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable
digital audio player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...
s, typified by
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
's
iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...
, along with other MP3 players. Digital music sales rose, accounting for 6% of all music sales in 2005. Digital music options were integrated into other devices such as
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s and the popular
PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...
(PSP). By the latter half of the decade, generic MP3 players were starting to mimic the features of the extremely popular iPod and Zune. * As a result of the widespread popularity and social impact of
Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...
, the word "
google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
" came to be used as a
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
. *
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...
technology reached the point of being able to make video players. As a result,
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, a website which allows uploading and viewing videos, was created. YouTube's popularity grew explosively and it was acquired by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
. * Data storage prices continued to drop, going from approximately US$7 per GB in early 2000 to US$0.07 per GB in 2009. * Due to an increase in capacity,
USB flash drive A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and u ...
s rapidly replaced Zip disks and floppy discs (by Iomega) and 3.5-inch
diskettes A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
. * The first 2 TB hard drives were developed and beginning to be used. *
Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
and Microsoft Office 2003 became ubiquitous in personal computer software, although their successors
Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...
and, by the end of the decade,
Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...
, saw increasing market penetration. *
Open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
and
free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
continued to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of the
Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...
gaining in popularity, as well as the
Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...
web browser and the
OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed) and Collabora Online, with Apache OpenOffice being considered mostly d ...
productivity suite. *
Blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
s, portals, intranets and
wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
s became common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conduct
knowledge management Knowledge management (KM) is the set of procedures for producing, disseminating, utilizing, and overseeing an organization's knowledge and data. It alludes to a multidisciplinary strategy that maximizes knowledge utilization to accomplish organ ...
. ** Wikipedia began and grew, becoming both the largest
encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...
, and the most widely read
wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
in the world. *
Wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking allows homes, telecommunications networks, and business installations to avoid the costly process of introducing cables int ...
s became ever more commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces. *
Peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...
technology was used in a major way, such as internet telephony (
Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...
),
file-sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include re ...
. The Internet became a major source of all types of media, from music to movies, thanks initially to file-sharing peer-to-peer programs such as
Kazaa Kazaa Media Desktop ( ) (once stylized as "KaZaA", but later usually written "Kazaa") was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequ ...
and
LimeWire LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of pirated materials, particularly pirated m ...
. The debate continued over the ethics of
file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...
. Legal music download services such as
iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
and streaming services such as
Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
opened up new markets. * The
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
industry's profits surpassed the movie industry's in 2004. * The US tech bubble burst for the most part in early 2000s and after three years of negative growth the technology market began its rebound in 2003. * Social networking websites like
Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...
and
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
microblogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...
platforms like
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
gained in popularity. * Smartboards in schools gained acceptance and were adopted rapidly during the middle years of the decade. * E-book readers using
electronic paper Electronic paper or intelligent paper, is a display device that reflects ambient light, mimicking the appearance of ordinary ink on paper – unlike conventional flat-panel displays which need additional energy to emit their own light. This may ...
technology were developed, and enjoyed modest popularity.


Software development

* The
Agile Manifesto Agile software development is an umbrella term for approaches to developing software that reflect the values and principles agreed upon by ''The Agile Alliance'', a group of 17 software practitioners, in 2001. As documented in their ''Manifesto ...
was launched and agile project management approaches such as Scrum grew in popularity. However, due to factors such as inflexibility in procurement processes, and lack of expertise among civil servants, government computing projects continued to fail with regularity, notably in the United Kingdom. * A large number of software development and
software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the Quality (business), quality of software and the risk of its failure to a User (computin ...
jobs in rich nations were offshored to less wealthy countries such as India and Russia, mirroring a
globalisation Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
trend that had already occurred in physical manufacturing. ** There was also a trend of offshoring software development work to cities like
Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
and
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
- where Western developers rubbed shoulders with other foreign workers - and "offshoring" within the EU (including
nearshoring Nearshoring is the outsourcing of business processes, especially information technology processes, to companies in a nearby country, often sharing a border with the target country. Both parties expect to benefit from one or more of the following di ...
).


Video

*
Digital camera A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...
s became very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increased. As a result, sales of film reel cameras diminished greatly, and integration into
mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
s increased greatly; sexting by teenagers also became a controversial social issue, with teenagers - and even in one case a school administrator who investigated a sexting case - being arrested. *
Graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...
s (GPUs) and
video card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a displa ...
s became powerful enough to render ultra-high-resolution (e.g. 2560 × 1600) scenes in real time with substantial detail and texture. *
Flat panel display A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment. Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better ...
s began displacing
cathode ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...
s. This was a dramatic change during the decade, as very few flat panels were sold through the mid-2000s (decade) and the majority of stores sell only flat panel TVs by the end of the decade. *
Handheld projector A handheld projector (also known as a pocket projector, mobile projector, pico projector or mini beamer) is an image projector in a handheld device. It was developed as a computer display device for compact portable devices such as mobile ph ...
s entered the market and were then integrated into cellphones. * The digital switchover started to be enforced for television. * The introduction of
digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR), also referred to as a personal video recorder (PVR) particularly in Canadian and British English, is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SS ...
s (DVRs) allowed consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers could fast-forward through commercials, making them useless, and save TV shows for later viewing, causing a decline in live TV viewing. However, these problems were already present with video tapes. * Internet usage surpassed TV viewing in 2004.
Satellite TV Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
and
cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...
(with the exception of
digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...
) lost ratings as network television ratings gradually increased. * TV networks started streaming shows online. * There was an increase in usage of online DVD rental services such as
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
. *
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s, and subsequently
Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
s, replaced VCR technology as the common standard in homes and at video stores, although inexpensive VCRs and videocassettes could still be found at some thrift stores and discount stores.


Vehicles and energy

* There were major advances in
hybrid vehicle A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids. Hybrid powertrai ...
s such as the
Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...
,
Ford Escape The Ford Escape is a compact crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company since the 2001 model year. The first Ford SUV derived from a car platform, the Escape fell below the Ford Explorer#Second generation (UN105/150; 1995), F ...
, and the Honda Insight. * Many more computers and other technologies were incorporated into vehicles, such as Xenon HID headlights, GPS, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, MP3 player compatibility,
USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...
drive compatibility, self-parking systems, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights, HUD (Head-Up-Display), infrared cameras, and
Onstar OnStar Corporation is a subsidiary of General Motors that provides subscription-based telecommunication, communications, in-vehicle security, emergency services, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems throughout the United States, ...
(on GM models). * There was greater interest in
future energy development The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
due to
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
and the potential scenario of
peak oil Peak oil is the point when global oil production reaches its maximum rate, after which it will begin to decline irreversibly. The main concern is that global transportation relies heavily on gasoline and diesel. Adoption of electric vehicles ...
, even though these problems had been known about for decades.
Photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...
s increased in popularity and decreased in cost as a result of increased public interest and generous public
subsidies A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acce ...
.


Communications

* The popularity of
mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
s and
text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...
surged in the 2000s decade in the
Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before, resulting in numerous boons such as the ability to receive information on the move. Nevertheless, it also led to negative social implications such as Text "bullying" and the rise of
traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...
s caused by drivers who were distracted as they were
texting while driving Texting while driving, also called texting and driving, is the act of composing, sending, or reading text messages on a mobile phone while driving, operating a motor vehicle. Texting while driving is considered traffic safety, extremely dangerous ...
. * Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections,
Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
(VoIP) began to gain popularity as a replacement for traditional telephone lines. Major telecommunications carriers began converting their networks from TDM to VoIP. * Unusually for a development heralded by science fiction,
videophone Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...
s were cheap and abundant, yet even by mid-decade, they had not received much attention, perhaps due to the high cost of video calls relative to ordinary calls. * Mobile phones adopted features such as Internet access, PDA functions, running software applications, video calling, cameras and video recording, and music and video playback as standard. Higher end
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s continue to offer extra features such as GPS and
Wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...
. * Due to improvements in
mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...
displays and memories, most mobile phone carriers offered video viewing services, internet services, and some offered full music downloads, such as Sprint in 2005 and more common use of
Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...
. This led to a virtual saturation of cell phone ownership among the public in the developed world, increasing the use of mobile phones as everyday carry items, and a sharp decline in the use and numbers of
payphone A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone or pay telephone or public phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic public areas. Prepayment is required by inserting coins or tel ...
s.


Robotics

* As in previous decades,
robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...
continued to develop, especially
telerobotics Telerobotics is the area of robotics concerned with the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, chiefly using television, wireless networks (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the Deep Space Network) or tethered connections. It is a combinatio ...
in medicine, particularly for
surgery Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques to diagnose or treat pathological conditions (e.g., trauma, disease, injury, malignancy), to alter bodily functions (e.g., malabsorption created by bariatric surgery s ...
. *
Home automation Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It may also include home security such ...
and home robotics advanced in North America; iRobot's " Roomba" was the most successful domestic robot and sold 1.5 million units. (Others of interest include: Robomower, and Scooba as of May 2006) *The first robotic vehicle completed the
DARPA Grand Challenge The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for American vehicle automation, autonomous vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense. Uni ...
in 2005 and became the first vehicle to be able to navigate itself with no external interference. *
Humanoid robots A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments and working alongside humans, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal ...
and
robot kit A robot kit is a special construction kit for building robots, especially autonomous mobile robots. Toy robot kits are also supplied by several companies. They are mostly made of plastics elements like Lego Mindstorms, rero Reconfigurable Ro ...
s improved considerably, to the point of retailing as toys. This was typified by RoboSapien and
Lego Mindstorms Lego Mindstorms (sometimes stylized as ''LEGO MINDSTORMS'') is a discontinued line of educational kits for building programmable robots based on Lego bricks. It was introduced on 1 September 1998 and discontinued on 31 December 2022. Mindstor ...
respectively.


Space technology

* GPS (Global Positioning System) became very popular, especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars. Games that utilize the system, such as
geocaching Geocaching (, ) is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called ''geocaches'' or ''caches'', at sp ...
, emerged and developed a niche following. * The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster occurred in February 2003. *
SpaceShipOne SpaceShipOne is an experimental air launch, air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to / using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "Feathering (reentry), feathering" atmosph ...
made the first privately funded human
spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such ...
on June 21, 2004.


Healthcare

* Corrective
eye surgery Eye surgery, also known as ophthalmic surgery or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa. Eye surgery is part of ophthalmology and is performed by an ophthalmologist or eye surgeon. The eye is a fragile organ, and require ...
became popular as costs and potential risk decreased and results further improved. * 244 new drugs were approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
.


General retail

*
RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...
(Radio Frequency ID) became widely used in retail giants such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items. * Self-serve kiosks became very widely available, and were used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, banking, and car rental. ATMs became nearly universal in much of the First World and very common even in poorer countries and their rural areas.


See also

* 2000 in science * 2001 in science *
2002 in science 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. * Ma ...
*
2003 in science The year 2003 was an exciting one for new scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs progress in many scientific fields. Some of the highlights of 2003, which will be further discussed below, include: the anthropologic discovery of ...
*
2004 in science The year 2004 in science and technology involved some significant events. Anthropology * October 27 – Remains of a previously unknown species of human is discovered in Indonesia. Named '' Homo floresiensis'', the hominin is a dwarfed versi ...
* 2005 in science *
2006 in science The year 2006 in science and technology involved some significant events. Astronomy * January 15 – NASA's ''Stardust (spacecraft), Stardust'' mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet. * January 25 – The discovery o ...
* 2007 in science * 2008 in science *
2009 in science The year 2009 involved numerous significant scientific events and discoveries, some of which are listed below. 2009 was designated the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations. Events, discoveries and inventions January *1 Janu ...
* 2010 in science *
History of science and technology The history of science and technology (HST) is a field of history that examines the development of the understanding of the natural world (science) and humans' ability to manipulate it (technology) at different points in time. This academic discip ...
* List of science and technology articles by continent * List of years in science * 2010s in science and technology


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2000s In Science And Technology Science and technology by decade 2000s-related lists