RIA Novosti presents the most significant scientific and cultural events of 2002

RIA Novosti presents the most significant scientific and cultural events of 2002 in Russia and the world.

World's events:

1. An Italian doctor, Severino Antinori, has announced about the first experiment of human cloning. The child is expected to come into the world in the first decade of January 2003. According to Antinori, information that the first cloned child is due in late December is "improbable".

2. The world's sensation of Joan Rowling's new books about Harry Potter and their screen versions.

3. Scientists have launched an international experiment to check the validity of the Einstein relativity theory - the basis of the modern scientific approach to the universe studies. The experiment is to take place at the International Space Station for 5 years.

4. Scientists from the Australian national university conducted the first successful experiment on teleportation - instantaneous transference of physical objects in space.

5. The film "Mulholland drive" made by David Lynch (Oscar prize for best directing) has confirmed that deep thoughts and unwillingness to follow common tastes still has no competitors in the world of art.

6. Transferring of writer Alexander Dumas's ashes to the Pantheon of French glory, another sign of the world's cult of literature and its authors.

7. The film made by the Japanese Disney, Hayao Miyazaki "Spirited Away" (the main prize at the Berlin festival) has become a masterpiece of the world's animated cartoon making. The cartoon opens new opportunities for animated films.

8. Great success of the South Korean cinema and its leader, director Kim Ki-Duk.

9. Russian opera singer Dmitry Khvorostovsky has been appearing at the world's most prestigious stages with a new singing project - arias of Hendel and Gluck.

10. A law on euthanasia - free-will death of incurables has come into force in Holland.

Events in Russia:

1. On the President Vladimir Putin's decree work on the Big Russian Encyclopedia's first edition has been started.

2. Revitalisation of the Russian cinema. Films made by Russian film directors Alexander Sokurov, Alexander Rogozhkin, Alexey Balabanov and Andrei Konchalovsky have received awards at the world's biggest cinema festivals in Cannes, Venice, Moscow, and Berlin.

3. Russian mathematician Vladimir Voyevodsky /36 years old/ has won the highest award of the International mathematicians congress, which is equal to the Nobel Prize.

4. The United nuclear research institute in Dubna, Moscow region, has started work on synthesis of the periodic table's 188th element.

5. Musical boom in Russia.

6. Realty-show fashion on the Russian television.

7. The game between the world's chess champion, Russian grand master Vladimir Kramnik and the "Deep Fritz" international chess program has ended in a draw.

8. Mikhail Shemyakin has staged the "Nutcracker" ballet at the Mariinsky theatre with own scenery, costumes and choreography. For the first time an artist has become a full host of a ballet show.

9. The "Plasticine" play of the young Russian dramatist, Vasily Sigarev, staged in the London "Royal Court" Theatre, has won a prestigious English award.

10. The Russian "Tatu" pop group's success in the USA and western countries.