1768 in science
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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 Template:Lang on the poisonous function of reptiles and amphibians. He also publishes Template:Lang 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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
- Copley Medal: Peter Woulfe<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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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)<ref>Template:Treccani</ref>
- 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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