What happened in 2004 that was interesting?

Here is TRN mag’s picks. TRN’s Top Picks: Technology Research Advances of 2004
“ Each year sees more researchers at work and more research papers published than the last – the volume of scientific and technological research has doubled every decade for the past three centuries.

The profusion of technology research in 2004 includes notable advances in biotechnology, communications, computing, engineering, energy, security, nanotechnology, applied physics and the Internet.“ Most of the stuff is pretty obscure. And remember this is basic research that won’t see productization for years. But this stuff is the wet dream of many a VC.

It gets me thinking about what I think was interesting about 2004. I will have to think on that some more.