2005 in science - Definition and Overview

The year 2005 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

Climatology

• January 27 - Scientists behind the climateprediction.net project, a distributed computing project run from Oxford University, announce that first results indicate a long term surface temperature increase due to global warming of between 2 and 11 degrees centigrade as a consequence of doubling carbon dioxide levels, with most of the simulations predicting a temperature rise of around 3.4°C. The results are published in Nature (http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature03301).

Paleontology

• January 13 - Chinese paleontologists announce the discovery of fossils of Repenomamus robustus and Repenomamus giganticus, mammals that lived 130 million years ago. The fossil discoveries indicate that these mammals preyed on small dinosaurs. The results are published in Nature (http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038%2F433116b).

Space exploration

• January 14 - The Huygens probe was successfully sent into the atmosphere of Titan and returns science data to Earth via the Cassini orbiter. It survives the landing on the surface of Titan and sends pictures and other data for more than an hour afterwards.
• January 26 - ESA's SMART-1 begins sending back close range pictures of the lunar surface

Appointments

• January 26 - The NIH announce that Elizabeth Nabel will succeed Claude Lenfant as director of the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Deaths

• February 3 – Ernst Mayr (b. 1904), leading evolutionary biologist.