1991 in science

The year 1991 in science and technology had many significant events, including those listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• October 29 - the Galileo probe becomes the first spacecraft to visit an asteroid.

Chemistry

• Carbon nanotubes discovered by Sumio Iijima

Computer science

• February 26 - Tim Berners-Lee introduces the web browser.

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
  • Chemistry - Richard R. Ernst
  • Medicine - Erwin Neher, Bert Sakmann
• Turing Award - Robin Milner

Births

Deaths

• January 30 - John Bardeen (b. 1908), physicist, co-inventor of the transistor. Only physicist to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics twice.
• March 1 - Edwin H. Land (b. 1909), inventor and founder of Polaroid.