1868 in science

• January 30 – Publication of Charles Darwin's The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (by John Murray in London), including his theory of heredity, which he calls pangenesis.
• Jules-Emile Planchon and colleagues propose Phylloxera as the cause of the Great French Wine Blight.{{cite journal|url=http://www.wampumkeeper.com/wineblight.html|title=The Great French Wine Blight|journal=Wine Tidings|volume=96 |accessdate=2011-08-01| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20110717235415/http://www.wampumkeeper.com/wineblight.html| archivedate= 17 July 2011 | url-status= usurped |date=July–August 1986}}
• Roland Trimen reads a paper to the Linnaean Society explaining Batesian mimicry in African butterflies.Published in Transactions 26(3) (1870): 497.{{cite journal|title=Roland Trimen, 1840-1916|jstor=80995|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B|volume=91|issue=641|year=1920|pages=xviii–xxvii|doi=10.1098/rspb.1920.0020|doi-access=free}}
• T. H. Huxley discovers what he thinks is primordial matter and names it Bathybius haeckelii. He admits his mistake in 1871.{{cite book|last=Ley|first=Willy|authorlink=Willy Ley|year=1959|title=Exotic Zoology|location=New York|publisher=Viking Press|title-link=Exotic Zoology (book)}}
• The Granny Smith apple cultivar originates in Eastwood, New South Wales, Australia, from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Ann Smith (née Sherwood, 1799–1870).{{cite web|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smith-maria-ann-13199|first=Megan|last=Martin|title=Smith, Maria Ann (1799–1870)|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|location=Canberra|year=2005|accessdate=2012-01-27}}

• August 18 – The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total eclipse in Guntur, India, but assumed to be sodium.{{cite journal|title=French astronomers in India during the 17th –19th centuries|journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association|volume=101|issue=2|pages=95–100|bibcode=1991JBAA..101...95K|last=Kochhar|first=R. K.|year=1991}}
• October 20 – English astronomer Norman Lockyer observes and names the D₃ Fraunhofer line in the solar spectrum and concludes that it is caused by a hitherto unidentified element which he later names helium.{{cite book|title= The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements|pages=256–268|first=Clifford A.|last=Hampel|location=New York|isbn=0-442-15598-0|year=1968|publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold}}
• Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron patents methods of color photography.{{cite book|last=Coe|first=Brian|title=Colour Photography: the first hundred years 1840-1940|year=1978|location=London|publisher=Ash & Grant|isbn=0-904069-24-9}}

• Jean-Martin Charcot describes and names multiple sclerosis.{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/19.html|title=Jean-Martin Charcot|work=Whonamedit?|last=Enerson|first=Ole Daniel|accessdate=2011-04-11| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20110514000108/http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/19.html| archivedate= 14 May 2011 | url-status= live}}{{cite journal|author=Charcot, J.-M.|title= Histologie de la sclerose en plaques|journal=Gazette des Hopitaux|location=Paris|year=1868|volume=41|pages= 554–55}}
• Adolph Kussmaul performs the first esophagogastroduodenoscopy on a living human.{{cite journal|last1=Killian|first1=Gustvan|title=The history of bronchoscopy and esophagoscopy|journal=The Laryngoscope|volume=21|pages=891–7|year=1911|doi=10.1288/00005537-191109000-00001|issue=9|s2cid=73388145|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448736}}{{cite journal|last1=Modlin|first1=Irvin M.|last2=Kidd|first2=Mark|last3=Lye|first3=Kevin D.|title=From the Lumen to the Laparoscope|url=http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/139/10/1110|journal=Archives of Surgery|volume=139|issue=10|pages=1110–26|year=2004|pmid=15492154|doi=10.1001/archsurg.139.10.1110|accessdate=2011-10-17|url-access=subscription}}{{cite book|last1=Elewaut|first1=A.|last2=Cremer|first2=M.|chapter=The History of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy — The European Perspective|editor1-last=Classen|editor1-first=Meinhard|editor2-last=Tytgat|editor2-first=Guido N.J.|editor3-last=Lightdale|editor3-first=Charles J.|title=Gastroenterological endoscopy|publisher=Thieme|location=Stuttgart|year=2002|page=17|isbn=978-1-58890-013-5|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X5c7NVo-gkC&q=%22The%20History%20of%20Gastrointestinal%20Endoscopy%E2%80%94The%20European%20Perspective%22.&pg=PA17|accessdate=2010-09-06}}{{cite book|first=F.|last=Vilardell|title=Digestive endoscopy in the second millennium: from the Lichtleiter to echoendoscopy|chapter=Rigid gastroscopes|publisher=Thieme|location=Stuttgart|year=2006|pages=32–5|isbn=978-3-13-139671-6|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bu1l1yS156oC&dq=%22Rigid+gastroscopes%22.+Digestive+endoscopy+in+the+second+millenium:+from+the+lichtleiter+to+echoendoscopy.&pg=PT71|accessdate=2010-09-06}}

• March – French geologist Louis Lartet discovers the first identified skeletons of Cro-Magnon, the first anatomically modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens), at Abri de Crô-Magnon, a rock shelter at Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France.

• June 23 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter is patented in the United States.{{US patent|79265|US79265}}.
• October 28 – American inventor Thomas Edison applies for his first patent, for a form of electronic voting machine.
• Ernest and Auguste Bollée first patent the Éolienne Bollée wind turbine in France.No 79985.
• Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell's paper on governors{{cite journal|last=Maxwell|first=James Clerk|title=On Governors|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society|location=London|volume=16|issue=100|year=1868|pages=270–283|doi=10.1098/rspl.1867.0055|jstor=112510}} is a landmark in the mathematics of feedback and in control theory.
• Pendulum-and-hydrostat control for the Whitehead torpedo developed by Robert Whitehead.

• Copley Medal: Charles Wheatstone{{cite web |title=Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/Copley-Medal |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=23 July 2020 |language=en}}
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Carl Friedrich Naumann

• January 9 – S. P. L. Sørensen (died 1939), Danish chemist.
• January 31 – Theodore William Richards (died 1928), American chemist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• February 7 – Aleen Cust (died 1937), Anglo-Irish veterinary surgeon.
• March 15 – Grace Chisholm Young (died 1944), English mathematician.
• March 22 – Robert Andrews Millikan (died 1953), American physicist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics.{{cite web |title=Robert A. Millikan - Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1923/millikan-bio.html |website=www.nobelprize.org}}
• April 4
• Philippa Fawcett (died 1948), English mathematician.
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt (died 1921), American astronomer{{cite news |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0705/p15s01-bogn.html |title=Before computers, there were these humans... |publisher=Christian Science Monitor |first=Gregory M. |last=Lamb |date=July 5, 2005 |access-date=January 1, 2020}}
• April 5 – Percy Furnivall (died 1938), English surgeon.
• April 8 – Herbert Spencer Jennings (died 1947), American zoologist.
• April 14 – Annie S. D. Maunder, née Russell (died 1947), Irish astronomer.
• April 28 – Georgy Voronoy (died 1908), Ukrainian mathematician.
• April 30 – J. B. Christopherson (died 1955), English physician.
• May 2 – Robert W. Wood (died 1955), American optical physicist.
• June 6 – Robert Falcon Scott (died 1912), English explorer.
• June 7 – John Sealy Townsend (died 1957), Irish mathematical physicist.{{Cite journal | last1 = Von Engel | first1 = A. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1957.0018 | title = John Sealy Edward Townsend. 1868-1957 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 3 | pages = 256–272| year = 1957 | doi-access = }}
• June 14 – Karl Landsteiner (died 1943), Austrian physiologist.
• July 4 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt (died 1921), American astronomer.{{cite book|first1=Deborah|last1=Todd|first2=Joseph|last2=Angelo|title=A to Z of Scientists in Space and Astronomy|location=New York|publisher=Facts of File|year=2003|page=200|isbn=978-0-81604-639-3}}
• October 23 – Frederick W. Lanchester (died 1946), English automotive engineer.
• November 8 – Felix Hausdorff (died 1942), German mathematician.
• November 14 – Karl Landsteiner (died 1943), Austrian-born physiologist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.{{Cite journal | last1 = Rous | first1 = P.| title = Karl Landsteiner. 1868–1943 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1947.0002 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 5 | issue = 15 | pages = 294–324| year = 1947 |jstor=769085| s2cid = 161789667}}
• November 15 – Emil Racoviță (died 1947), Romanian biologist, speleologist and explorer.
• November 17 – Korbinian Brodmann (died 1918), German neurologist.
• December 5 – Arnold Sommerfeld (died 1951), German theoretical physicist.Born, Max, Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld, 1868–1951, Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society Volume 8, Number 21, pp. 274–296 (1952)
• December 9 – Fritz Haber (died 1934), German chemist.{{cite book | last=Goran | first=Morris | title=The Story of Fritz Haber | publisher=University of Oklahoma Press | year=1967 | isbn=978-0-8061-0756-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=im24AAAAIAAJ | access-date=30 April 2021 | page=38}}

• February 10 – Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (born 1781){{cite book|author=Gordon, Margaret Maria |title=The home life of sir David Brewster|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sG4BAAAAQAAJ|access-date=18 September 2011|year=1881|publisher=D. Douglas|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sG4BAAAAQAAJ/page/n238 231]–236}}
• February 11 – Léon Foucault (born 1819), French physicist.{{cite book|author1=John Guy Porter|author2=Patrick Moore|title=Yearbook of Astronomy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbc7AAAAMAAJ|year=1967|publisher=W. W. Norton|page=47}}
• February 24 – John Herapath (born 1790), English physicist.
• May 22 – Julius Plücker (born 1801), German mathematician and physicist.
• June 25 – Alexander Mitchell (born 1780), Irish engineer and inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse.
• June 29 – Sir John Lillie, British army officer, entrepreneur and inventor (born 1790)
• July 15 – William T. G. Morton (born 1819), American dentist.
• August 29 – Christian Friedrich Schönbein, German chemist and inventor of the fuel cell (born 1799){{cite book | last = Partington | first = J. R. | title = History of Chemistry | publisher = Macmillan Education, Limited | location = London | year = 1964 | isbn = 9781349005543 | page=190}}
• September 26 – August Ferdinand Möbius (born 1790), German mathematician and astronomer{{cite book | last = Franceschetti | first = Donald | title = Biographical encyclopedia of mathematicians | publisher = Marshall Cavendish | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780761470717 | page=377}}
• December 25 – Linus Yale, Jr. (born 1821), American engineer and inventor.{{cite book | last = Day | first = Lance | title = Biographical dictionary of the history of technology | publisher = Routledge | location = London New York | year = 1996 | isbn = 9781134650194 | page=1345}}
• December 31 – James David Forbes (born 1809), Scottish-born physicist, glaciologist and seismologist.

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Category:1860s in science

Category:19th century in science