1986 in science

The year 1986 in science and technology involved many significant events, some not listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

January 24 – NASA Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus.
January 28 – NASA Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on launch, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Their bodies are located by United States Navy divers on March 9.
February 19 – The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station.
March 8 – Japanese spacecraft Suisei flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.
October 10 – Aten asteroid 3753 Cruithne, in co-orbital configuration with Earth, is identified by Duncan Waldron.

May – First reported methods for constructing a monoclonal antibody containing parts from mouse and human antibodies, a required first step toward the development of humanized antibodies used later as medical therapeutics (such as Infliximab).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
English epidemiologist David Barker proposes his fetal origins hypothesis.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

January 16 – The Internet Engineering Task Force, a standards organization that develops and promotes Internet standards, holds its first meeting, consisting of 21 United States government-funded researchers.
January 19 – The first MS-DOS-based personal computer virus, Brain, starts to spread.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
April 3 – IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
June 23 – Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is visualized by Mark Crispin.
3D printing is developed by Charles Hull.
Pixar is founded.

January 11 – The Gateway Bridge is opened in Brisbane, Australia, the world's largest prestressed concrete single box bridge.
April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: An RBMK at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic reaches prompt criticality.
December 23 – Rutan Voyager becomes the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California after a nine-day trip piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.

November 8 – Aaron Swartz (suicide 2013), American computer programmer and Internet hactivist.

January 7 – Rex Wailes (b. 1901), English engineer and historian of technology.
January 28
- Crew of United States Space Shuttle Challenger mission STS-51-L:
  - Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)
  - Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948)
  - Ronald McNair (b. 1950)
  - Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946)
  - Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
  - Dick Scobee (b. 1939)
  - Michael J. Smith (b. 1945)
- Dorothée Pullinger (b. 1894), French-born British production engineer.
April 22 – Dame Honor Fell (b. 1900), English biologist.
July 6 – William Rashkind (b. 1922), American cardiologist.
July 21 – Zhang Yuzhe (b. 1902), Chinese astronomer.
October 22 – Albert Szent-Györgyi (b. 1893), Hungarian physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
October 31 – Edward Adelbert Doisy (b. 1893), American biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
June 7 – Robert S. Mulliken (b. 1896), American physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
November 25 – Sir Ivan Magill (b. 1888), British anesthesiologist.