The year 1768 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology

Caspar Friedrich Wolff begins publication of "De Formatione Intestinarum" in the Mémoires of The Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences (St. Petersburg), a significant work in the science of embryology.[1]
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.[2]
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,[3]

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.[4][5]

Events

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

Awards

Copley Medal: Peter Woulfe

Births

9 April 1768 Birth of Marie-Charles-Théodore de Damoiseau, in Jussan Mouthier, (Doubs), France

March 21 - Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (d. 1830)
July 18 - Jean-Robert Argand, French mathematician (d. 1822)

1768 Birth of William Nicol

Deaths

February 2 - Robert Smith, English mathematician (b. 1689)
April 29 - Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist (b. 1694)
June 15 - James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (b. 1710)
September 2 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (b. 1703)
11 September 1768 Death of Joseph-Nicolas Delisle in Paris, France,, French astronomer (b. 1688)
October 1 - Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician (b. 1687)
November 26 - Edward Stone, English polymath (b. 1702)[6]

References

^ Petrunkevitch, Alexander (June 1920). "Russia's Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences (New Haven) 23: 235.
^ "Genus: Bougainvillea Comm. ex Juss.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
^ "William Cookworthy 1705-80". Three Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol - The Story of Bristol Pottery and Porcelain. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
^ Euler, L. (1768). Lettres à une Princesse d'Allemagne. St. Petersburg.
^ Baron, Margaret E. (May 1969). "A Note on The Historical Development of Logic Diagrams: Leibniz, Euler and Venn". The Mathematical Gazette (Mathematical Association) 53 (383): 113–125. JSTOR 3614533.
^ Mann, Ralph (2004). "Stone, Edward (1702–1768)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-02-17. subscription or UK public library membership required