within the healthy human brain, as well as to produce a body of data that will facilitate research into brain disorders. 2009 – A new strain of H1N1 virus first detected in Mexico spread to the world, resulting in the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Mathematics 2006 – Grigori Perelman is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. In 2003, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture. This consequently solved in the affirmative the Poincaré conjecture, posed in 1904, which before its solution was viewed as one of the most important and difficult open problems in topology. In August 2006, Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal for "his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow." Perelman declined to accept the award or to appear at the congress, stating: "I'm not interested in money or fame, I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo." On December 22, 2006, the journal Science recognized Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year", the first such recognition in the area of mathematics. The Poincaré conjecture is one of the seven Millennium Problems and the first to be solved. Physics 2001 – Scientists assembled molecules into basic circuits, raising hopes for a new world of nanoelectronics. If researchers can wire these circuits into intricate computer chip architectures, this new generation of molecular electronics will undoubtedly provide computing power to launch scientific breakthroughs for decades. 2008 – CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator ever made, was completed in 2008. Space 2000 – Beginning on November 2, 2000, the International Space Station has remained continuously inhabited. The Space Shuttles helped make it the largest space station in history, despite one of the Shuttles disintegrating upon re-entry in 2003. By the end of 2009 the station was supporting 5 long-duration crew members. 2001 – Space tourism/Private spaceflight begins with American Dennis Tito, paying Russia US$20 million for a week-long stay to the International Space Station. 2004 – 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. Opportunity discovers evidence that an area of Mars was once covered in water. Both rovers were each expected to last only 90 days, however both