million years ago. The fossil discoveries indicate that these mammals preyed on small dinosaurs. February 17 – Two Ethiopian fossil skulls originally found in 1967 by Richard Leakey, Omo I and Omo II, are re-dated at 195,000 years old, making them the oldest Homo sapiens remains known. December 15 – European and Canadian researchers announce the dating of flint artefacts from Pakefield, Suffolk, UK to around 700,000 years ago, representing the earliest unequivocal evidence for human presence north of the Alps. Philosophy Physics This has been named the World Year of Physics in honor of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's Annus Mirabilis papers of 1905 and the resulting developments in the field of physics. Many institutions are celebrating by holding lecture series on Einstein, the history of special relativity and quantum mechanics and other public events surrounding the history of physics. Space exploration January 14 – The Huygens probe is successfully sent into the atmosphere of Titan and returns science data to Earth via the Cassini orbiter. It survives the landing on the surface of Titan and sends pictures and other data for more than an hour afterwards. January 26 – ESA's SMART-1 begins sending back close range pictures of the lunar surface February 7 – NASA announce budget plans – in the announcement, they state that a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope will not take place, and that a robotic mission to deorbit the telescope with a safe descent into an ocean will take place. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (Jimo) mission is also cancelled. February 12 – ESA successfully launch an Ariane 5 ECA carrying three satellites. The previous attempt to launch the new design of rocket, in December 2002, failed when the rocket deviated from its course minutes into the flight. July 4 – The Deep Impact spacecraft successfully observes the disintegration of its "impactor" section colliding with the comet Tempel 1. A large number of other telescopes also provide data on this event. Technology August 29 – Levee failures in Greater New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Awards Nobel Prize Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren Nobel Prize in Physics: Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs and Richard R. Schrock Abel Prize in Mathematics: Peter David Lax Appointments January 26 – The NIH announce that