1660 in science

The year 1660 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Events

November 28 – At Gresham College in London, twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins and Robert Moray, meet after a lecture by Wren and resolve to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning", which will become the Royal Society.{{cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-14-102715-0|year=2006}}

John Ray publishes Catalogus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium in Cambridge, the first flora of an English county.{{cite journal|first=Frank N.|last=Egerton|title=A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 18: John Ray and His Associates Francis Willughby and William Derham|url=http://www.esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_list/history18.pdf|journal=Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America|date=October 2005|pages=301–313}}

The popular English-language edition by Isaac Barrow of Euclid's Elements is published in London.

Robert Boyle publishes New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects (the second edition in 1662 will contain Boyle's law).
Robert Hooke conceives Hooke's law (but does not publish it in full until 1678).{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Hooke|title=Lectures De Potentia Restitutiva, or of Spring. Explaining the Power of Springing Bodies|url=https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_lectures-de-potentia-res_hooke-robert_1678 |publisher=The Royal Society|location=London|year=1678}}

Jan Goedart begins publication of Metamorphosis Naturalis in Middelburg, Zeeland, containing detailed illustrated descriptions of insect metamorphosis.{{cite book|title=Johannes Goedaert: Fijnschilder en entomoloog|year=2016|editor-last=Beaart|editor-first=Kees|language=nl|publisher=Nehalennia|location=[Middelburg]|isbn=978-90-805985-6-0}}

February 19 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (died 1742)
April 16 – Hans Sloane, Ulster Scots-born collector and physician (died 1753)
March 15 – Olof Rudbeck the Younger, Swedish naturalist (died 1740)
May 27 (bapt.) – Francis Hauksbee, English scientific instrument maker and experimentalist (died 1713)
approx. date – Edward Lhuyd, Welsh naturalist (died 1709)
Date unknown – Jeanne Dumée, French astronomer (born 1660)