1768 in science

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>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 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>Template:Cite web</ref>

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

• Joseph Wright of Derby paints An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.

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>Template:Cite web</ref>

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>Template:Cite web Template:ODNBsub</ref>