1669 in science

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The year 1669 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Montanari detects the variability of the eclipsing binary Algol.

Biology

• Marcello Malpighi publishes Dissertatio Epistolica de Bombyce in London, a study of Bombyx mori which is the first published monograph on an invertebrate.
• Robert Morison publishes Praeludia Botanica, emphasising use of the structure of a plant's fruits for its classification.
• Francis Willughby and John Ray publish "Experiments concerning the motion of sap in trees, made this spring".^[1]
• Jan Swammerdam publishes Historia Insectorum Generalis in the Netherlands, explaining the process of metamorphosis in insects.

Chemistry

• Phosphorus is discovered by Hennig Brand.^[2]

Geology

• Nicolas Steno puts forward his theory that sedimentary strata had been deposited in former seas, and that fossils are organic in origin.^[3]

Mathematics

• October 29 – Isaac Newton is appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.^[4]

Physics

• Rasmus Bartholin publishes his observation of the birefringence of a light ray by Iceland spar (calcite).^[5]

Physiology and medicine

• Richard Lower publishes his Tractatus de Corde on the workings of the heart.

Publications

• Isaac Barrow publishes Lectiones Opticæ et Geometricæ in London.

Births

• May 26 – Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (died 1722)

Deaths

• Nicasius le Febure, French chemist (born c. 1615)

References

1. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 4: pp. 963–965.
2. Emsley, John (2001). Nature's Building Blocks: an A–Z guide to the elements. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-850341-5.
3. De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus.
4. Palmer, Alan; Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 190–191. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
5. Bartholin, Erasmus (1669). Experimenta crystalli islandici disdiaclastici quibus mira & insolita refractio detegitur. Copenhagen: Daniel Paulli. English translation: Experiments with the double refracting Iceland crystal which led to the discovery of a marvelous and strange refraction tr. by Werner Brandt. Westtown, Pa., 1959.