1676 in science

The year 1676 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Summer – The Royal Greenwich Observatory, designed by Christopher Wren, is completed near London.{{cite book|first=R.|last=Chambers|authorlink=Robert Chambers (publisher born 1802)|title=The Book of Days|url=https://archive.org/details/b22650477_0002|year=1878}}
December 7 – Danish astronomer Ole Rømer measures the speed of light by observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, obtaining a speed of 140,000 miles per second (approximately 25% too slow).
Edmond Halley arrives on the island of Saint Helena, having left the University of Oxford, and sets up an astronomical observatory to catalogue stars from the Southern Hemisphere.

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria, observed with the microscope.{{Cite news|date=September 17, 2018|work=India Today |title=How bacteria was discovered by the father of microbiology, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/bacteria-discovery-by-antonie-van-leeuwenhoek-1341671-2018-09-17|access-date=2021-08-30}}
Francis Willughby's Ornithologiae is published by John Ray, the foundation of scientific ornithology.{{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|volume=86|issue=4 |pages=301–313|accessdate=2011-04-26 |date=October 2005|doi=10.1890/0012-9623(2005)86[301:ahotes]2.0.co;2}}{{cite book|authorlink=Geoffrey Keynes|last=Keynes|first=Sir Geoffrey|year=1976|title=John Ray, 1627–1705: a bibliography 1660–1970|publisher=Van Heusden|location=Amsterdam|page=52}}{{cite book|authorlink=Charles E. Raven|last=Raven|first=Charles E.|year=1942|title=John Ray, naturalist: his life and works|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}{{cite book|authorlink=Alfred Newton|last=Newton|first=Alfred|year=1893|title=Dictionary of Birds|url=https://archive.org/details/adictionarybird00shufgoog|publisher=Black|location=London}}

William Briggs publishes an anatomy of the eye (the first in England), Ophthalmographia, at Cambridge.{{cite web|first=Barbara Beigun|last=Kaplan|title=Briggs, William (c.1650–1704)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3413|accessdate=2011-10-10|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3413}} {{ODNBsub}}
Thomas Sydenham publishes the textbook {{lang|la|Observationes mediciae}}, the enlarged 3rd edition of his {{lang|la|Methodus curandi febres}}.

The first fossilised bone of what is now known to be a dinosaur is discovered in England by Robert Plot, the femur of a Megalosaurus from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.{{cite book|last=Sarjeant|first=William A.S.|editor=Farlow, James O.|editor2=Brett-Surman, Michael K.|title=The Complete Dinosaur|year=1997|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=0-253-33349-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253333490/page/3 3–11]|chapter=The earliest discoveries|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253333490/page/3}}

Robert Hooke first reveals Hooke's law as a Latin anagram.The anagram is given in alphabetical order, ceiiinosssttuv, representing {{lang|la|Ut tensio, sic vis}} – "As the extension, so the force": {{cite book|last=Petroski|first=Henry|author-link=Henry Petroski|title=Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing|url=https://archive.org/details/inventionbydesig00petr|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0674463684|page=[https://archive.org/details/inventionbydesig00petr/page/11 11]}}

July 7 – The first clocks using a form of deadbeat escapement, constructed by Thomas Tompion to a design by Richard Towneley, are installed at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.