1987 in science

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 Tommie 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 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.
• Maglite introduces the 2AAA Mini Maglite flashlight, targeted for medical and industrial applications.

Zoology

• June 17 – The last known purebred dusky seaside sparrow, dies.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, French physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
• March 26 – Gwyn Macfarlane, British hematologist.
• October 2 – Peter Medawar, British immunologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• October 13 – Walter Houser Brattain, American physicist.
• October 20 – Andrey Kolmogorov, Russian mathematician.
• December 2 – Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, Belarusian astrophysicist.
• December 7 – Helen Porter, English plant physiologist.