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.