1621 in science
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The year 1621 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- Johann Schreck (1576–1630), also known as Johannes Schreck, Terrenz or Terrentius, introduces the telescope to China.{{cite web|url=http://ausstellungen.bibliothek.htwg-konstanz.de/china/03_johannes_schreck1.htm|title=Johannes Schreck-Terrentius Constantiensis: Wissenschaftler und Chinamissionar|publisher=HWTG Konstanz}}
Botany
- The University of Oxford Botanic Garden, the oldest botanical garden in Great Britain, is founded as a physic garden by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby.{{cite web|title=A History of The Gardens |url=http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/Garden/History%20Sub/obg-history-1.html |publisher=The University of Oxford Botanic Garden |accessdate=2011-03-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709200332/https://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/Garden/History%20Sub/obg-history-1.html |archivedate=2011-07-09 }}
Medicine
- Robert Burton publishes his treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy.
Physics
- Willebrord Snellius formulates Snell's law on refraction.
Technology
- A simple microscope is developed.
- Cornelius Vermuyden begins reclamation of Canvey Island in England.
Births
- January 27 – Thomas Willis, English physician who contributes to knowledge of the nervous and cardiovascular systems (died 1675)
Deaths
- July 2 – Thomas Harriot, English ethnographer, astronomer and mathematician (born c. 1560)
- September 1 – Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī, Arab philosopher and astronomer (born 1547)
- Jan Jesenius, Slovak physician (born 1566)