1737 in science

The year 1737 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

May 28 – The planet Venus passes in front of Mercury. The event is witnessed during the evening by amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in England.{{cite book |last1=Bakich |first1=Michael E. |title=The Cambridge Planetary Handbook |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521632805 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PE99nOKjbXAC&pg=PA103|language=en}}

February 27 – French scientists Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon publish the first study correlating past weather conditions with an examination of tree rings."On the cause of the eccentricity of the woody layers which one perceives when one cuts horizontally the trunk of a tree" (De la cause de l'excentricité des couches ligneuses qu'on apperçoit quand on coupe horisontalement le tronc d'un arbre).
Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, with her own colour illustrations, is published in London.{{cite web |title=A Curious Herbal |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-curious-herbal-dandelion |website=The British Library |accessdate=21 March 2019}}
Johannes Burman's Thesaurus zeylanicus, a flora of Ceylon, is published in Amsterdam.

Francesco Serao is the first person to use the word lava in connection with extruded magma in a short account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which took place between May 14 and June 4.{{cite book |last1=Duffin |first1=C. J. |last2=Gardner-Thorpe |first2=C. |last3=Moody |first3=R. T. J. |title=Geology and Medicine: Historical Connections |date=2017 |publisher=Geological Society of London |isbn=9781786202833 |page=60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FCg5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60|language=en}}
October 11 – An earthquake in Calcutta, India is said to have caused 300,000 deaths; this is now in question: it was probably a cyclone, with deaths estimated at 3,000.{{cite book |last1=Gates |first1=Alexander E. |last2=Ritchie |first2=David |title=Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes |date=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9780816072705 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b1sXfJCiCHQC&pg=PA38|language=en}}
October 16 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 strikes offshore of the Kamchatka Peninsula.{{cite book |last1=Dasgupta |first1=Samir |last2=Şiriner |first2=İsmail |last3=De |first3=Partha Sarathi |title=Women's Encounter with Disaster |date=2010 |publisher=ismail siriner |isbn=9788190884143 |page=250 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBlzFssoovMC&pg=PA250|language=en}}

Divergence of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes proved by Leonhard Euler.{{cite journal|first=Leonhard|last=Euler|title=Variae observationes circa series infinitas|trans-title=Various observations concerning infinite series|journal=Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Petropolitanae|volume=9|year=1737|pages=160–188}}

John Harrison is given an award from the longitude prize to continue his work on development of a stable marine chronometer in England.{{cite web |title=Longitude found: John Harrison |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/longitude-found-john-harrison |website=Royal Museums Greenwich {{!}} UNESCO World Heritage Site In London |accessdate=21 March 2019 |language=en |date=7 October 2015}}

Venetian polymath Francesco Algarotti publishes Newtonianism for Ladies, or Dialogues on Light and Colours (Neutonianismo per le dame).{{cite book |last1=Ritchie |first1=Stefka |title=Samuel Johnson's Pragmatism and Imagination |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781527521094 |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzJ3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA76|language=en}}

Copley Medal: John Belchier{{cite web |title=medal |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=950403&partId=1&searchText=copley+medal&page=1 |website=British Museum |accessdate=21 March 2019}}

January 4 – Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, French chemist and politician (died 1816)
August 14 – Charles Hutton, English mathematician (died 1823)
September 9 – Luigi Galvani, Italian physicist (died 1798){{cite web |title=Luigi Galvani {{!}} Italian physician and physicist |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Luigi-Galvani |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=21 March 2019 |language=en}}