1988 in science

The year 1988 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

* September 29 - NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster.
* November 15 - In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle "Buran" is launched by an Energia rocket on her maiden orbital spaceflight (this was the first and last space flight for the shuttle).
*Asteroid 3994 Ayashi is discovered by Masahiro Koishikawa.
*4407 Taihaku is discovered.
*4539 Miyagino is discovered.

Computer science

* November 2 - The Morris worm is unleashed on the Internet.
* November 17 - The Netherlands becomes the second country to get connected to the Internet.

Awards

* Nobel Prizes
** Physics - Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger
** Chemistry - Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel
** Medicine - Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings
* Turing Award - Ivan Sutherland

Births

THERE ARE NO, SUCKER!

Deaths

* January 11 - I.I. Rabi (b. 1898), American physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for invention of the atomic beam magnetic resonance method of measuring magnetic properties of atoms and molecules.
* February 15 - Richard Feynman (b. 1918), American physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on quantum electrodynamics.
* May 8 - Robert A. Heinlein (b. 1907), "hard" science fiction author
* May 25 - Ernst Ruska (b. 1906), Nobel Prize Physicist