1989 in science

The year 1989 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.

Astronomy

 * August – Asteroid 4769 Castalia is the first asteroid directly imaged, by radar from Arecibo.
 * August 25 – The Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, providing definitive proof of the planet's rings.
 * September 5 – Pluto–Charon barycentre comes to perihelion.
 * Asteroid 5128 Wakabayashi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
 * 4292 Aoba is discovered.
 * 4871 Riverside is discovered.
 * 6089 Izumi is discovered.
 * 6190 Rennes is discovered
 * 8084 Dallas is discovered.

Biology

 * Discovery of the cystic fibrosis trans-membrane conductance regulator gene.
 * The New Zealand Department of Conservation begins to implement a Kākāpō Recovery Plan.

Computer science

 * March 12 – Tim Berners-Lee submits a memorandum, titled "Information Management: A Proposal", to the management at CERN for a system that would eventually become the World Wide Web.
 * June 8 – GNU Bash is released.
 * July 26 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer virus, making him the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in the United States.

Environment

 * The global concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reaches 350 ppm (parts per million) by volume.

Physics

 * January – Supplee's paradox is published.
 * March 23 – Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah.

Physiology and medicine

 * The Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials begins publishing online.
 * The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is first identified by Michael Houghton and his team.

Technology

 * July 17 – The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit "Stealth Bomber" aircraft, developed for the United States Air Force, first flies.
 * Isamu Akasaki produces the first Gallium nitride p-n junction blue/UV light-emitting diode.

Awards

 * Nobel Prizes
 * Physics – Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt, Wolfgang Paul
 * Chemistry – Sidney Altman, Thomas R. Cech
 * Medicine – J. Michael Bishop, Harold E. Varmus
 * Turing Award – William (Velvel) Kahan

Births

 * May 9 – Katie Bouman, American computer imaging scientist

Deaths

 * February 27 – Konrad Lorenz (born 1903), Austrian zoologist.
 * March 18 – Sir Harold Jeffreys (born 1891), English mathematician.
 * April 24 – Horace Hodes (born 1907), American medical researcher.
 * August 10 – Isabella Forshall (born 1900), English pediatric surgeon.
 * August 12 – William Shockley (born 1910), American physicist.
 * August 20 – George Adamson (born 1906), British wildlife conservationist.
 * August 29 – Sir Peter Scott (born 1909), English wildlife conservationist.
 * October 11 – M. King Hubbert (born 1903), American geophysicist.
 * October 28 – Louise Hay (born 1935), French-born American mathematician; breast cancer.
 * December 14 – Andrei Sakharov (born 1921), Soviet Russian nuclear physicist and political dissident.