1768 in science
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{{Science year nav|1768}}
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The year 1768 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Biology
- Steller's sea cow is hunted to extinction.
- Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti becomes auctor of the class of reptiles through his {{lang|la|Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena}} on the poisonous function of reptiles and amphibians. He also publishes {{lang|it|Il Dragone}} describing the olm, one of the first accounts of a cave animal in the western world.
- Caspar Friedrich Wolff begins publication of "De Formatione Intestinarum" in the Mémoires of The Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences (Saint Petersburg), a significant work in the science of embryology.{{cite journal|first=Alexander|last=Petrunkevitch|title=Russia's Contribution to Science|journal=Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences|location=New Haven|volume=23|page=235|date=June 1920}}
- Lazzaro Spallanzani challenges the spontaneous generation of cellular life.
Botany
- Bougainvillea is first classified in Brazil by Philibert Commerçon, the botanist accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville's French Navy voyage of circumnavigation.{{cite web|url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?1617|title=Genus: Bougainvillea Comm. ex Juss.|work=Germplasm Resources Information Network|publisher=United States Department of Agriculture|date=2010-07-07|accessdate=2010-12-14}}
- Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau's Traité des arbres fruitiers is published in Paris.
Chemistry
- March 17 – William Cookworthy is granted a patent for the manufacture of porcelain from kaolinite in England.{{cite web|url=http://www.kalendar.demon.co.uk/cookworthy.htm|title=William Cookworthy 1705-80|work=Three Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol – The Story of Bristol Pottery and Porcelain|accessdate=2011-06-17| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20110723002618/http://www.kalendar.demon.co.uk/cookworthy.htm| archivedate= 23 July 2011 }}
Exploration
- Peter Simon Pallas begins a scientific expedition through the Russian Empire.
Mathematics
- Leonhard Euler uses closed curves (which become known as Euler diagrams) to illustrate syllogistic reasoning.{{cite book|last=Euler|first=L.|title=Lettres à une Princesse d'Allemagne|location=Saint Petersburg|year=1768}}{{cite journal|last=Baron|first=Margaret E.|author-link=Margaret Baron|title=A Note on The Historical Development of Logic Diagrams: Leibniz, Euler and Venn|work=The Mathematical Gazette|jstor=3614533|publisher=Mathematical Association|volume=53|issue=383|pages=113–125|date=May 1969}}
Events
Publications
- Leonhard Euler's Letters to a German Princess (Lettres à une princesse d'Allemagne sur divers sujets de physique et de philosophie) are first published, in Saint Petersburg.
Awards
Births
- February 15 – Anthony Carlisle, English surgeon (died 1840)
- March 21 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (died 1830)
- March 22 – Bryan Donkin, English engineer and inventor (died 1855)
- July 18
- Jean-Robert Argand, French mathematician (died 1822)
- Giuseppangelo Fonzi, Italian dentist (died 1840){{treccani|giuseppangelo-lucinto-fonzi_(Dizionario-Biografico)|Giuseppangelo Lucinto Fonzi|Luciano Bonuzzi|1997}}
- date unknown
- Marie-Jeanne de Lalande, French astronomer (died 1832)
- Edward Donovan, Anglo-Irish natural historian (died 1837)
- Amelia Griffiths, English phycologist (died 1858)
- Wang Zhenyi, female Chinese astronomer (died 1797)
Deaths
- January 29 – John Martyn, English botanist (born 1699)
- February 2 – Robert Smith, English mathematician (born 1689)
- April 29 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist (born 1694)
- June 15 – James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (born 1710)
- September 2 – Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (born 1703)
- September 11 – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, French astronomer (born 1688)
- October 1 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (born 1687)
- November 26 – Edward Stone, English polymath (born 1702){{cite web|first=Ralph|last=Mann|title=Stone, Edward (1702–1768)|work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38014|accessdate=2011-02-17}} {{ODNBsub}}