From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is a summary of the
2000s in science and technology
.
Science
[
edit
]
The Mars Exploration Rovers have provided vast amounts of information by functioning well beyond NASA's original estimates.
- Using the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
, scientists studying the
universe
measured that
its age
is 13.77 billion years; "solidly supported" that it has been
expanding
and cooling since the
Big Bang
; and calculated that the universe is composed of about 4.6%
atoms
, 24%
dark matter
, and 71%
dark energy
.
[1]
- The
Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission
successfully reached the surface of
Mars
in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to
Earth
. Whilst
NASA
's original mission timeline of three months was incorrectly speculated, the mission was tremendously successful overall in the long term, as the MER Mission continued until 2018, lasting nearly 25 times the projected length.
- The
Human Genome Project
was completed in 2003.
[2]
- The
National Geographic Society
and
IBM
funded
The Genographic Project
.
- In 2002,
Perelman
posted the first of a series of eprints to the arXiv, in which he proved the
Poincare conjecture
,
- On 29 July 2005, the discovery of
Eris
, a
Kuiper Belt
object larger than
Pluto
, was announced. In August 2006
Pluto
was "demoted" to a "
dwarf planet
" after being considered a planet for 76 years. Other "dwarf planets" in our solar system now include
Ceres
and
Eris
.
- Space tourism
/
Private spaceflight
began with American
Dennis Tito
, paying Russia US$20 million for a week-long stay to the
International Space Station
.
- The
Voyager 1
spacecraft entered the
heliosheath
, marking its departure from the
Solar System
.
- Scientists discovered water ice on the
Moon
in 2009.
[3]
- AFIS
and
CODIS
became the main forensic tools for fingerprint and genetic code investigation in the
industrialized world
and some
developing countries
.
- infraluciferin became the go-to luciferin for in vivo imaging and threatening to replace natural luciferin entirely.
Technology
[
edit
]
Information technology
[
edit
]
This contemporary illustration shows the look
personal computers
took, which differed from the
monitor
-over-
system unit
look that dominated much of the late 20th century. Personal computers also started coming out mainly in black,
[4]
in contrast to the universal creamy
white
of much of the late 20th century.
As with the 1980s and 1990s, there continued to be smaller system units, including all-in-one computers.
- There was a huge jump in
broadband internet usage
globally - for example, it constituted only 6% of U.S. internet users in June 2000
[5]
and one mid-decade study predicted 62% adoption by 2010.
[6]
Yet, by February 2007, over 80% of US Internet users were connected via broadband and broadband internet became almost a required standard for quality internet browsing.
[7]
There were 77.4 million broadband subscribers in the US in December 2008, with 264 million broadband subscribers alone in the top 30 countries at that time.
[8]
- There was a boom in music downloading and the use of
data compression
to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable
digital audio players
, typified by
Apple
's
iPod
, along with other MP3 players. Digital music sales rose, accounting for 6% of all music sales in 2005.
[9]
Digital music options were integrated into other devices such as
smartphones
and the popular
PlayStation Portable
(PSP). By the latter half of the decade, generic MP3 players were starting
[
citation needed
]
to mimic the features of the extremely popular iPod and
Zune
.
- As a result of the widespread popularity and social impact of
Google Search
, the word "
google
" came to be used as a
verb
.
- Adobe Flash
technology reached the point of being able to make video players. As a result,
YouTube
, a website which allows uploading and viewing videos, was created. YouTube's popularity grew explosively and it was acquired by
Google
.
- Data storage prices continued to drop, going from approximately US$7 per GB in early 2000 to US$0.07 per GB in 2009.
[10]
- Due to an increase in capacity,
USB flash drives
rapidly replaced
Zip disks and floppy discs
(by
Iomega
) and 3.5-inch
diskettes
.
- The first 2 TB
hard drives
were developed and beginning to be used.
[11]
- Windows XP
and
Microsoft Office 2003
became the ubiquitous industry standard in personal computer software, although their successors
Windows Vista
and, by the end of the decade,
Windows 7
, saw increasing market penetration.
- Open-source
and
free software
continued to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of the
Linux kernel
gaining in popularity, as well as the
Mozilla Firefox
web browser and the
OpenOffice.org
productivity suite.
- Blogs
,
portals
,
intranets
and
wikis
became common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conduct
knowledge management
.
- Wikipedia began and grew, becoming both the largest
encyclopedia
, and the most widely read
wiki
in the world.
- Wireless networks
became ever more commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces.
- Peer-to-peer
technology was used in a major way, such as internet telephony (
Skype
),
file-sharing
. The Internet became a major source of all types of media, from music to movies, thanks initially to file-sharing peer-to-peer programs such as
Kazaa
and
LimeWire
. The debate continued over the ethics of
file sharing
. Legal music download services such as
iTunes
and streaming services such as
Spotify
opened up new markets.
- The
video game
industry's profits surpassed the movie industry's in 2004.
[
citation needed
]
- The
US tech bubble burst
for the most part in early 2000s and after three years of negative growth the technology market began its rebound in 2003.
[
citation needed
]
- Social networking websites like
Myspace
and
Facebook
and
microblogging
platforms like
Twitter
gained in popularity.
- Smartboards
in schools gained acceptance and were adopted rapidly during the middle years of the decade.
- E-book readers
using
electronic paper
technology were developed, and enjoyed modest popularity.
Software development
[
edit
]
- The
Agile Manifesto
was launched and agile project management approaches such as
Scrum
grew in popularity. However, due to factors such as inflexibility in procurement processes, and lack of expertise among civil servants, government computing projects continued to
fail with regularity
, notably in the United Kingdom.
- A large number of software development and
software testing
jobs in rich nations were
offshored
to less wealthy countries such as India and Russia, mirroring a
globalisation
trend that had already occurred in physical manufacturing.
- There was also a trend of offshoring software development work to cities like
Dubai
and
Singapore
- where Western developers rubbed shoulders with other foreign workers - and "offshoring" within the EU (including
nearshoring
).
Video
[
edit
]
TiVo
typified the growth in DVRs
- Digital cameras
became very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increased. As a result, sales of film reel cameras diminished greatly, and integration into
mobile phones
increased greatly;
sexting
by teenagers also became a controversial social issue, with teenagers - and even in one case a school administrator who investigated a sexting case - being arrested.
[
citation needed
]
- Graphics processing units
(GPUs) and
video cards
became powerful enough to render ultra-high-resolution (e.g. 2560 × 1600) scenes in real time with substantial detail and texture.
[
citation needed
]
- Flat panel displays
began displacing
cathode ray tubes
. This was a dramatic change during the decade, as very few flat panels were sold through the mid-2000s (decade)
[
citation needed
]
and the majority of stores sell only flat panel TVs by the end of the decade.
- Handheld projectors
entered the market and were then integrated into cellphones.
- The
digital switchover
started to be enforced for television.
- The introduction of
digital video recorders
(DVRs) allowed consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers could fast-forward through commercials, making them useless, and save TV shows for later viewing, causing a decline in live TV viewing.
[
citation needed
]
However, these problems were already present with video tapes.
- Internet usage surpassed TV viewing in 2004.
Satellite TV
and
cable TV
(with the exception of
digital cable
) lost ratings as network television ratings gradually increased.
[
citation needed
]
- TV networks started streaming shows online.
- There was an increase in usage of online DVD rental services such as
Netflix
.
- DVDs
, and subsequently
Blu-ray Discs
, replaced
VCR
technology as the common standard in homes and at video stores, although inexpensive VCRs and videocassettes could still be found at some thrift stores and discount stores.
Vehicles and energy
[
edit
]
- There were major advances in
hybrid vehicles
such as the
Toyota Prius
,
Ford Escape
, and the
Honda Insight
.
- Many more computers and other technologies were incorporated into vehicles, such as Xenon HID headlights,
GPS
, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, MP3 player compatibility,
USB
drive compatibility, self-parking systems, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights,
HUD
(Head-Up-Display), infrared cameras, and
Onstar
(on GM models).
- There was greater interest in
future energy development
due to
global warming
and the potential scenario of
peak oil
, even though these problems had been known about for decades.
Photovoltaics
increased in popularity and decreased in cost as a result of increased public interest and generous public
subsidies
.
Communications
[
edit
]
Small, powerful, accessibly priced
mobile phones
became highly common, and by the end of the decade were expanding quickly in third-world countries.
[12]
[13]
- The popularity of
mobile phones
and
text messaging
surged in the 2000s decade in the
Western world
. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before, resulting in numerous boons such as the ability to receive information on the move. Nevertheless, it also led to negative social implications such as Text "bullying" and the rise of
traffic collisions
caused by drivers who were distracted as they were
texting while driving
.
- Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections,
Voice over IP
(VoIP) began to gain popularity as a replacement for
traditional telephone
lines. Major telecommunications carriers began
[
citation needed
]
converting their networks from
TDM
to VoIP.
- Unusually for a development heralded by science fiction,
videophones
were cheap and abundant, yet even by mid-decade, they had not received much attention, perhaps due to the high cost of video calls relative to ordinary calls.
- Mobile phones adopted features such as Internet access,
PDA
functions, running software applications, video calling, cameras and video recording, and music and video playback as standard. Higher end
smartphones
continue to offer extra features such as
GPS
and
Wireless
.
- Due to improvements in
mobile phone
displays and memories, most mobile phone carriers offered video viewing services, internet services, and some offered full music downloads, such as
Sprint
in 2005 and more common use of
Bluetooth
. This led to a virtual saturation of cell phone ownership among the public in the developed world, increasing the use of mobile phones as
everyday carry
items, and a sharp decline in the use and numbers of
payphones
.
Robotics
[
edit
]
Space technology
[
edit
]
- GPS
(Global Positioning System) became very popular, especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars. Games that utilize the system, such as
geocaching
, emerged and developed a niche following.
- The
Space Shuttle
Columbia
disaster
occurred in February 2003.
- SpaceShipOne
made the first privately funded human
spaceflight
on June 21, 2004.
[14]
Healthcare
[
edit
]
General retail
[
edit
]
- RFID
(Radio Frequency ID) became widely used in retail giants
[
citation needed
]
such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items.
- Self-serve kiosks became very widely available, and were used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, banking, and car rental.
ATMs
became nearly universal in much of the First World and very common even in poorer countries and their rural areas.
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
WMAP mission (2006-03-16).
"The Age of the Universe with New Accuracy"
. NASA.
Archived
from the original on 23 January 2008
. Retrieved
8 January
2021
.
- ^
Zhang, Sarah.
"The Human Genome Is?Finally!?Complete"
.
The Atlantic
. Retrieved
8 January
2022
.
- ^
"SPACE.com -- It's Official: Water Found on the Moon"
.
Space.com
. 23 September 2009.
Archived
from the original on 2009-10-03
. Retrieved
2009-10-05
.
- ^
"Beige/White Cases"
. Directron.com, Inc., Houston, Texas. Archived from
the original
on 10 February 2008
. Retrieved
19 January
2008
.
Beige/White had been a common color for PC cases and monitors for years. It lost popularity to other colors like black
- ^
Bethea, Neil; Jacob Williams & Yiwen Yu (June 2003).
"Broadband services in the United States"
(PDF)
. Ohio State University. p. 9. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 4 September 2006
. Retrieved
20 January
2008
.
Growth of Broadband Users:June 2000:total:4,367,434
- ^
Sharma, Dinesh (2005-08-02).
"Study: Broadband penetration to surge by 2010"
. CNET News.com.
Archived
from the original on 14 July 2014
. Retrieved
10 February
2007
.
- ^
"US Broadband Penetration Breaks 80% Among Active Internet Users"
. WebSiteOptimization.com. May 2007.
Archived
from the original on 16 February 2008
. Retrieved
20 January
2008
.
- ^
"Total broadband subscribers by country (Dec. 2008)"
. OECD. May 2009. Archived from
the original
on 7 March 2010
. Retrieved
15 July
2009
.
- ^
"Digital Music Sales Booming"
. Wired News. Associated Press. 2006-01-19. Archived from
the original
on 2012-12-10
. Retrieved
20 January
2008
.
- ^
"Disk Drive Prices (1955-2015)"
. Archived from
the original
on 2015-07-14
. Retrieved
2015-07-25
.
- ^
History of hard disk drives#Timeline
- ^
"Archives for the category: Mobile phone projects - Third World"
. textually.org. Archived from
the original
on 25 January 2008
. Retrieved
19 January
2008
.
- ^
Selanikio, Joel (2008-01-18).
"The invisible computer revolution"
. BBC News.
Archived
from the original on 19 January 2008
. Retrieved
19 January
2008
.
important sub-groups in that region [high-growth areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the fastest growing cell phone market in the world,] have much higher penetration than the general population ... many [of whom] have access to one via a friend or family member
- ^
Belfiore, Michael (2007).
Rocketeers: how a visionary band of business leaders, engineers, and pilots is boldly privatizing space
. New York: Smithsonian Books. pp. 80?111.
ISBN
978-0-06-114903-0
. Retrieved
2014-12-28
.
- ^
Williamson, Simon (2003-11-26).
"Why run Windows on an ATM?"
. Archived from
the original
(blog)
on 26 April 2008
. Retrieved
19 January
2008
.
Remember, a lot of banks in third world countries have ATMs.