1987 in science

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.

Biochemistry

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

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 Tommie Lee Andrews is the first person to be convicted as a result of DNA fingerprinting.

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.
• 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.

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.
• May – The name chronic fatigue syndrome first appears in the medical literature.
• May 11 – The first heart-lung transplant takes place.
• August 31 – The FDA for the first time approves a statin, lovastatin.
• 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.

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.

Technology

• December 1 – Channel Tunnel digging commences.
• 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).
• 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 mathematician

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

References

1. (10 June 2012). "Dictionary of Minor Planet Names". Springer Science & Business Media.
2. (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]].
3. Zimmer, Carl. (February 6, 2015). ["Breakthrough DNA Editor Born of Bacteria "](https://www.quantamagazine.org/crispr-natural-history-in-bacteria-20150206/ ). Quanta Magazine.
4. (1987). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction". [[Analytical Biochemistry]].
5. (2006). "Single-step method of RNA isolation by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform extraction: Twenty-something years on". [[Nature Protocols]].
6. Johnson, George B.. "Gene Technology / Genetic Engineering". Txtwriter Inc. .
7. Gödel, Kurt. (1995). "Collected Works: Unpublished Essays & Lectures". Oxford University Press.
8. (1987). "Self-organized criticality: an explanation of 1/''ƒ'' noise". [[Physical Review Letters]].
9. Cimons, Marlene. (21 March 1987). "U.S. Approves Sale of AZT to AIDS Patients". [[Los Angeles Times]].
10. (May 1987). "Frequency of 'Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection' in a General Medical Practice". [[Journal of the American Medical Association]].
11. ["Product Details for NDA 019643 : MEVACOR (LOVASTATIN)"](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ob/results_product.cfm?Appl_Type=N&Appl_No=019643#3011 ). U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
12. Endo, Akira. (October 2004). "The origin of the statins". Atherosclerosis Supplements.
13. Cann, Rebecca L.. (1 January 1987). "Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution". [[Nature (journal).
14. Lipkin, H. J.. (1987). "New possibilities for exotic hadrons — anticharmed strange baryons". [[Physics Letters B]].
15. Adler, Jerry. (June 9, 2008). "The Race For Survival". [[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]].