1989 – 1997

■ Lap Chee Tsui, Francis Collins and Jack Riordan identify the cystic fibrosis gene, which has long-term implications for understanding this disease.

■ APS launches Advances in Physiology Education.

■ AJP – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology becomes a new section in the American Journal of Physiology.

■ Roger Tsien and colleagues develop the calcium indicators Fura-2 and Indo-1.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus “for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes.”

■ Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy.

■ After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West.

■ Czech Parliament ends Communists’ dominant role.

■ Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government.

■ Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez leaks 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.

■ First World Wide Web server and browser developed by Tim Berners-Lee (England) while working at CERN.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas “for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”

■ Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, setting off the Persian Gulf War.

■ The Hubble Space Telescope is launched.

■ President George H. W. Bush signs the Clean Air Act, mandating a variety of pollution-reducing changes in the automobile and fuel industries.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann “for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells.”

■ Gopher, the first user-friendly internet interface, is created at the University of Minnesota.

■ Soviet Union breaks up after President Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Edmond H. Fischer and Edwin G. Krebs “for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism.”

■ Yugoslav Federation breaks up.

■ Gregg Semenza and G. Wang identify the first member of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) family of transcription factors, a DNA binding complex that was first defined as a regulator of erythropoietin gene (EPO) expression.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Richard J. Roberts and Phillip A. Sharp “for their discoveries of split genes.”

■ Edward M Brown and colleagues clone and characterize the calcium sensing receptor.

■ APS launches APStracts, an online publication of accepted manuscripts using Gopher technology.

■ Five arrested for the bombing of World Trade Center in New York.

■ Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and it becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell “for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells.”

■ South Africa holds first interracial national election, electing Nelson Mandela as President.

■ John Allen Clements receives the Albert Lasker Prize for his work defining and describing the role of pulmonary surfactant, and for developing a life-saving artificial surfactant for use in premature infants.

■ Jeffrey Friedman discovers the hormone leptin which has important effects in regulating body weight, metabolism and reproductive function.

■ Mary L. Ellsworth documented that erythrocytes have a critical function in blood flow regulation and finely-tuned O2 delivery in tissues.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus “for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.”

■ Scores killed as terrorist’s car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building.

■ Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands of black men to Washington, DC.

■ John Payne and Christopher Gillen, and others clone the first two K-Cl cotransporter (KCC) isoforms KCC1 and 2, the latter present exclusively in the brain and required to permit hyperpolarizing GABA-mediated Cl currents in neurons.

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Peter C. Doherty and Rolf M. Zinkernagel “for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence.”

■ Peter K. Lauf and Norma C. Adragna demonstrate in a thermodynamic study that K-Cl cotransport is electroneutral.

■ Scientists analyzing a Martian meteorite claim that it may provide evidence for the existence of ancient life on Mars.

■ Dr. Ian Wilmut and his team clone the world’s first sheep from adult cells, Dolly.

■ Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Jens C. Skou “for the first discovery of an ion-transporting enzyme, Na+, K+ -ATPase.”

■ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Stanley B. Prusiner “for his discovery of Prions – a new biological principle of infection.”

■ APS began publishing the Journal of Applied Physiology and the Journal of Neurophysiology online with the assistance of HighWire Press, Stanford University.

■ Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car accident.

■ Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule.

■ US spacecraft begins exploration of Mars.

198

919

90

199

1

Bert SakmannErwin Neher

Roger Tsien

199

219

93

Mikhail Gorbachev

199

4

John Clements

Nelson Mandela

199

519

96

199

7

Peter K Lauf

Jens C. Skou Princess Diana