December 2004 in science

Other events in December 2004
World - Sci-Tech - Sports
Britain and Ireland - Canada - United States
Monthly events, 2004

• None reported so far

[edit] December 27, 2004

Newly discovered observations from March 2004 rule out the possibility that asteroid 2004 MN₄ (later named 99942 Apophis in July 2005) will hit Earth in 2029. (Space.com)

ESA's Huygens probe separates from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Deployment occurred at approximately 02:00 UTC and was confirmed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The probe will reach Saturn's moon Titan in 22 days, where it will make an atmospheric descent to the surface and relay scientific information. (Spaceflightnow).

A new European directive could put software writers at risk of legal action. (BBC).
Boeing launches a demonstration satellite using its new Delta IV Heavy rocket. Due to lower than expected performance, the payload falls short of its intended orbit. (Spaceflightnow) (BBC)

ASIMO the humanoid robot created by Honda is reprogrammed to be able to run. (BBC)
Symantec and Veritas Software announce plans for a merger. The $13.5 billion purchase of Veritas will be the largest acquisition in the software industry to date. (Press release) (NY Times)

The International Society for Molecular and Cell Biology Protocols and Researches, Inc (ISMCBPR) announces that the Molecule of the Year 2004 is awarded to IAA-RP. The award goes to the researchers of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York with Dr. George Prell being the First Author. The announcement was made by Isidro T. Savillo, President of ISMCBPR. (Press Release) (HUM- MOLGEN NEWS) (CELLBIOL NEWS)
New York: Sprint Corporation announces a $35 billion deal to acquire Nextel Communications. With about $40 billion in combined yearly revenue the resulting company (called Sprint Nextel) will be the third largest wireless telephone service provider in the U.S.. (MSNBC)

Oracle Corp. announces a merger deal to acquire PeopleSoft for approximately US$10.3 billion. (Oracle Press Release)
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft completes its third flyby of Saturn's moon Titan successfully. The newly acquired data will be used to fine-tune the trajectory of the Huygens lander, scheduled for release on December 24.
The BESS-Polar balloon experiment is launched from McMurdo Station to investigate cosmic radiation. (SpaceRef)

Jambo OpenOffice opensource software in Swahili: An extimated 100 million Swahili speakers in Africa have access to the first stage towards a full operating system in Swahili. The international initiative called The Open Swahili Localization Project - or Kilinux - is based in Tanzania and runs on Linux. (BBC) (Linux Insider)

Researchers at the University of New South Wales announce their discovery that compounds known as Furanones can prevent the bacteria that cause cholera from switching on their disease-causing mechanisms. Furanones can be extracted from the seaweed Delisea pulchra. (University press release)
IBM sells its PC Hardware division to Lenovo, China's largest computer company. The $1.75bn deal will make Lenovo the world's third-largest PC vendor. "This acquisition will allow Chinese industry to make significant inroads on its path to globalisation," says Liu Chuanzhi, Lenovo's chairman. (BBC) (Xinhua) (USA Today)

The Astrophysical Journal reports that the Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a galaxy that may be just 500 million years old: the youngest galaxy yet seen in the Universe. (BBC).
Researchers from the New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany demonstrate a device which allows people to interface with a computer through thought alone. "The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions," say Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. (BBC) (National Geographic)

Netcraft states that Lycos Europe's anti-spam screensaver has taken two spammer websites offline. The company's "vigilante" denial-of-service attack is seen as a controversial approach to the spam problem. (BBC) (Netcraft)