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Ten Key Dates In Science This Century 1900
1900: Max Planck advances the quantum theory to explain how light and energy behave, laying the groundwork for much of modern physics. 1905: Albert Einstein introduces relativity theory, revolutionizing first physics and then chemistry, biology and other fields. 1910: Thomas Morgan establishes that genes are the units of heredity and are ordered along cell structures called chromosomes. 1913: Niels Bohr applies quantum theory to explain the behavior of electrons, yielding a basic model for the atom still used today. 1942: Enrico Fermi achieves the first controlled nuclear reaction. Three years later, US atomic bombs kill tens of thousands of Japanese people in an instant and leave hundreds of thousands terminally ill from radiation exposure. 1946: The first electronic digital computer is built; "ENIAC" (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) weighs 80 tons. 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick of Britain introduce a model for deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. 1969: The first human beings walk on the moon; the Pentagon creates the Internet. 1978: Enzymes are used to rearrange genes and genetic engineering is born. Also born is the first healthy "test-tube baby," Louise.
1996: British researchers Keith Campbell and Ian Wilmut achieve the first successful cloning of a mammal -- a sheep named Dolly.
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