1828 in science

From Free net encyclopedia

The year 1828 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

Astronomy

• Félix Savary computes the first orbit of a visual double star when he calculates the orbit of the double star Xi Ursae Majoris.

Biology

• Karl Ernst von Baer lays the foundations of the science of comparative embryology with his book Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere
• Friedrich Woehler synthesizes urea; first synthesis of an organic compound

Chemistry

• Biochemistry: Urea becomes the first organic compound to be artificially synthesised, by Friedrich Wöhler, disproving a cornerstone of vitalism: The belief that life was not subject to the laws of science the way nonlife was.
• Jöns Jakob Berzelius discovers thorium

Mathematics

• George Green proves Green's theorem

Palaeontology

• Adolphe Theodore Brongniart publishes Prodrome d'une histoire des Végétaux Fossils, a study of fossil plants.
• Mary Anning discovers Britain's first pterosaur fossil at Lyme Regis

Physics

• William Rowan Hamilton publishes Theory of Systems of Rays

Awards

• Copley Medal: not awarded

Births

• March 24 - Jules Verne (d. 1905), science fiction author.
• October 31 - Joseph Swan (d. 1914), physicist.

Deaths

• March 17 - James Edward Smith (b. 1759), English botanist.
• August 8 - Carl Peter Thunberg (b. 1743), Swedish botanist.
• December 22 - William Hyde Wollaston (b. 1766), chemist.