• 1 January – NASA's GRAIL-B satellite successfully enters lunar orbit, joining its twin spacecraft GRAIL-A. The two satellites will study the Moon's gravitational field, generating a detailed map of its fluctuations to help scientists understand how the Moon formed. ^[1]
• 2 January
  • China launches its first commercial 3DTV channel, operated by China Central Television (CCTV). ^[2]
  • A new study shows that deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a safe and effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression in patients with either unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar ll disorder (BP). ^[3]
• 3 January – Genetically modified fast-ageing mice exhibited improved health and lived two to three times longer than expected after being injected with stem cells, according

• 2012 Abel Prize: Endre Szemerédi

• 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alan Guth, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen and Edward Witten
• 2012 FPP special award: Stephen Hawking, Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti, Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela and Lyn Evans

• 2012 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology: Ivan Sutherland ^[4]
• 2012 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences: Yoshinori Ohsumi ^[4]

• 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka
• 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics: Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland
• 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka

Sources: The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph

• 3 January – James F. Crow, American geneticist (b. 1916).
• 6 January – Roger Boisjoly, American rocket engineer (b. 1938).

• 16 February – Donald Henry Colless, Australian entomologist (b. 1922).
• 19 February – Renato Dulbecco, Italian American virologist, winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1914).
• 24 February – Oliver Wrong, British nephrologist (b. 1925).

• 10 March – Frank Sherwood Rowland, American atmospheric chemist, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1927).
• 24 March – Sir Paul Callaghan, New Zealand physicist (b. 1947).

• 8 April – Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist and political activist (b. 1936).
• 20 April – George Cowan, American chemist, Manhattan Project scientist and businessman (b. 1920).
• 29 April – Roland Moreno, Egyptian-born French inventor of the smart card, Légion d'Honneur recipient (b. 1945). ^[5]

• 12 May
  • Fritz Ursell, German-born British mathematician and fluid mechanics expert (b. 1923).
  • Donald Nicholson, British biochemist (b. 1916).
• 20 May – Eugene Polley, American engineer, inventor of the wireless television remote control (b. 1915).
• 21 May – Alan Thorne, Australian anthropologist (b. 1939).
• 27 May – Friedrich Hirzebruch, German mathematician (b. 1927).
• 30 May – Sir Andrew Huxley, British physiologist and biophysicist, winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1917).

• 7 June
  • Phillip V. Tobias, South African paleoanthropologist (b. 1925).
  • F. Herbert Bormann, American plant ecologist, credited with the discovery of acid rain (b. 1922).
• 13 June – William Standish Knowles, American chemist, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917).

• 3 July – Sergio Pininfarina, Italian automotive engineer and Senator for life (b. 1926).
• 8 July – Lord Henry Chilver, British engineer, lecturer and politician (b. 1926).
• 21 July – Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith, British geologist and glaciologist (b. 1923).
• 23 July – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, first American woman in space (b. 1951).
• 26 July – Ralph Slatyer, Australian ecologist and first Chief Scientist of Australia (b. 1929).

• 2 August – Sir Gabriel Horn, British biologist (b. 1927).
• 3 August – Martin Fleischmann, British chemist and cold fusion theorist (b. 1927).
• 6 August – Sir Bernard Lovell, British physicist and radio astronomer (b. 1913).
• 14 August – Sergei Kapitsa, Russian physicist and TV host (b. 1928).
• 21 August – William Thurston, American mathematician, winner of the 1982 Fields Medal (b. 1946).
• 25 August – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, first human being to set foot upon the Moon (b. 1930).

• 6 September – Jerome Horwitz, American chemist, inventor of the anti- HIV drug azidothymidine (b. 1919).
• 8 September – Bill Moggridge, British industrial designer who created the original laptop shape (b. 1943).
• 9 September – Ron Taylor, Australian shark expert, conservationist and filmmaker (b. 1934).
• 25 September – Dame Louise Johnson, British biochemist (b. 1940).
• 29 September – Neil Smith, Scottish geographer (b. 1954).

• 5 October – Keith Campbell, British biologist who was involved in creating the first cloned mammal (b. 1954)
• 15 October – Maria Petrou, Greek-born British artificial intelligence researcher (b. 1953).
• 17 October – Stanford Ovshinsky, American physicist and inventor who designed the battery now used in hybrid cars (b. 1922).
• 20 October
  • E. Donnall Thomas, American physician, joint winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1920).
  • Paul Kurtz, American skeptic, philosopher and secular humanist (b. 1925).
• 29 October – Wallace L. W. Sargent, Anglo-American astronomer (b. 1935).

• 11 November – Farish Jenkins, American paleontologist (b. 1940).
• 12 November – Daniel Stern, American psychologist (b. 1934).
• 14 November – Norman Greenwood, Australian chemist (b. 1925).
• 26 November – Joseph Murray, American surgeon and organ transplant pioneer, joint winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1919).

• 9 December
  • Sir Patrick Moore, English astronomer (b. 1923).
  • Alex Moulton, English mechanical engineer and inventor (b. 1920).
  • Norman Joseph Woodland, American engineer, inventor of the barcode (b. 1921).
• 17 December – Colin Spedding, British agricultural scientist (b. 1925).
• 24 December – Guy Dodson, New Zealand biochemist (b. 1937).
• 27 December – Archie Roy, Scottish astronomer (b. 1924).
• 30 December
  • Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist and Senator for life, joint winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1909).
  • Carl Woese, American microbiologist (b. 1924).