1755 in science

• Immanuel Kant develops the nebular hypothesis in his Universal Natural History and Theory of Heaven (Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels).{{cite journal|last=Woolfson |first=Michael Mark |author-link=Michael Woolfson |title=Solar System – its origin and evolution|journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=34|pages=1–20|year=1993|bibcode=1993QJRAS..34....1W}}{{cite journal|first=Stephen|last=Palmquist|authorlink=Stephen Palmquist|title=Kant's Cosmogony Re-Evaluated|journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science|volume=18|year=1987|issue=3|pages=255–269|doi=10.1016/0039-3681(87)90021-5|bibcode=1987SHPS...18..255P|url=https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/hkbu_staff_publication/7061}}

• June – Joseph Black's discovery of carbon dioxide ("fixed air") and magnesium is communicated in a paper to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh."Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and Some Other Alcaline Substances", published 1756.

• November 1 – An earthquake in Lisbon kills 30,000 inhabitants.
• Publication of De Litteraria expeditione per pontificiam ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridiani gradus a PP, a description of the measurement of a meridian arc carried out in the Papal States by Ruđer Bošković with Christopher Maire in 1750–52.

• August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof publishes the first record of an amoeba; he names it "der kleine Proteus" ("the little Proteus").{{cite book|last=Rosenhof|first=R.|year=1755|title=Monatlich herausgegebene Insekten-Belustigungen|volume=3|page=621|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q9JCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA621|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713174920/https://books.google.com/books?id=q9JCAQAAMAAJ&hl=&pg=PA621|archive-date=2015-07-13|via=Wayback Machine|accessdate=2024-08-23}}.

• Leonhard Euler's Institutiones calculi differentialis is published.{{cite book|first=W. W. Rouse|last=Ball|year=1888|authorlink=W. W. Rouse Ball|title=A Short Account of the History of Mathematics|location=London|publisher=Macmillan|page=368}}

Image:Plymouth-England-Eddystone-Lighthouse-2-wooden-1709-1755-free.gif, Rudyerd's wooden cone of 1709.]]

• December 2 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse (1709–1755), with a wooden cone, catches fire and burns to the ground; it will be rebuilt in stone.
• While serving as Postmaster General of the northern American colonies, Benjamin Franklin invents a simple odometer, attached to his horse carriage, to help analyze the best routes for delivering the mail.
• approx. date – Thomas Mudge invents the lever escapement for timepieces.

• Copley Medal: John Huxham{{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}}

• January 28 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, Prussian physician, anatomist, paleontologist and inventor (died 1830).
• April 11 – James Parkinson, English surgeon (died 1824).
• June 15 – Antoine François, French chemist (died 1809)
• October 11 – Fausto Elhuyar, Spanish chemist (died 1833).
• October 28 – Jacques Labillardière, French naturalist (died 1834).
• Maria Elizabetha Jacson, English botanist (died 1829).

• May 20 – Johann Georg Gmelin, botanist, natural historian and geographer (born 1709)

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Category:18th century in science

Category:1750s in science