The year 1728 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light to be approximately 301 000 km/s.[1]
James Bradley observes nutation of the Earth's axis.[1]

Exploration

July 14–August 14 - Vitus Bering sails northward from the Kamchatka Peninsula, through the Bering Strait, and rounds Cape Dezhnev.

Physiology and medicine

Pierre Fauchard publishes Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou, Traité des Dents, the first comprehensive text on dentistry, including the first description of orthodontic braces.[2]

Births

February 13 - John Hunter, Scottish surgeon, pathologist and comparative anatomist (d. 1793)
March 20 - Samuel-Auguste Tissot, Swiss physician (d. 1797)
April 16 - Joseph Black, Scottish physicist and chemist (d. 1799)
September 3 - Matthew Boulton, English mechanical engineer (d. 1809)
October 27 - James Cook, English explorer (d. 1779)

Deaths

August 11 - William Sherard, English botanist (b. 1659)

References

^ a b Delambre, J. B. (1827). Histoire de l'astronomie au dix-huitième siècle. Paris: Bachelier.
^ Spielman, Andrew I. (October 2007). "The Birth of the Most Important 18th Century Dental Text: Pierre Fauchard’s Le Chirurgien Dentist". Journal of Dental Research 86 (10): 922-926. doi:10.1177/154405910708601004. Retrieved 2012-03-09.