# 1987 in science

The year 1987 in science and technology involved many significant events, some listed below.

## 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 Tommy 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.
* Tinker Hatfield designs the Nike Air Max.
* 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.