1731 in science

• Philip Miller publishes The Gardeners Dictionary, containing the Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen Fruit and Flower Garden in London.
• Jethro Tull publishes The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry; or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation in London.

• John Bevis observes the Crab Nebula for the first time in the modern era.
• The octant is developed by John Hadley (it will eventually be replaced as an essential tool of navigation by the sextant).
• The orrery (or planetarium model) is developed as an apparatus showing the relative positions of heavenly bodies in the Solar System by using balls moved by wheelwork.

• The modern seismograph is developed by Italian scientist Nicholas Cerillo using a pendulum.

• The Euclidean distance formula is first published by Alexis Clairaut.{{citation|last=Maor|first=Eli|author-link=Eli Maor|isbn=978-0-691-19688-6|pages=133–134|publisher=Princeton University Press|title=The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuWZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA133|year=2019}}

• September – The first successful appendectomy is performed by English surgeon William Cookesley.{{cite journal|title=A considerable share of the intestines cut off after a mortification in a hernia and cured|journal=Medical Essays and Observations|location=Edinburgh|publisher=Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge|volume=5|issue=1|year=1742|pages=427–31}}{{cite journal|first=Peter|last=Selley|title=William Cookesley, William Hunter and the first patient to survive removal of the appendix in 1731 – a case history with 31 years' follow up|journal=Journal of Medical Biography|volume=24|year=2016|pages=180-3}}
• Laura Bassi becomes the first official female university teacher on being appointed professor of anatomy at the University of Bologna at the age of 21.{{cite web|title=The 18th Century Women Scientists of Bologna|url=http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|work=ScienceWeek|year=2004|accessdate=2011-04-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302045409/http://scienceweek.com/2004/rmps-4.htm|archive-date=2012-03-02|url-status=dead}}
• The Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge in Edinburgh begins publication of the peer reviewed Medical Essays and Observations.{{cite journal|author=Benos, Dale J.|title=The ups and downs of per review|url=http://advan.physiology.org/content/31/2/145.full.pdf+html|journal=Advances in Physiology Education|volume=31|pages=145–152|year=2007|doi=10.1152/advan.00104.2006|pmid=17562902|issue=2|accessdate=2011-08-30|display-authors=etal|url-access=subscription}}

• The harpoon gun is developed and used for the purpose of throwing the harpoon into the body of whales.

• Publication begins in Augsburg and Ulm of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer's Physica Sacra which attempts to provide a scientific explanation of Biblical history.

• Copley Medal: The first Copley Medal is awarded to Stephen Gray.{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=21 July 2020 |language=en}}

• October 10 – Henry Cavendish, English scientist (died 1810)
• November 9 – Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer and surveyor (died 1806)
• December 12 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (died 1802)

• January 6 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (born 1672)
• December 29 – Brook Taylor, English mathematician (born 1685)

{{reflist}}

Category:18th century in science

Category:1730s in science