The year 1762 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology

Charles Bonnet's Considerations sur les corps organisées is published in Amsterdam, synthesising current knowledge of cell biology and presenting his theory of palingenesis, intended to refute the theory of epigenesis.

Mathematics

September – Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorships is established in London, pioneering mutual insurance using a method of actuarial science devised by mathematician James Dodson.[1]
Johann Heinrich Lambert gives a proof that π is irrational.[2]

Awards

Copley Medal: Not awarded

Births

April 10 - Giovanni Aldini, Italian physicist (d. 1834)
November 20 - Pierre André Latreille, French zoologist (d. 1833)

1762 Birth of William Dawes in Portsmouth, England

Deaths

20 February 1762 Death of Johann Tobias Mayer in Göttingen, Germany, German astronomer (b. 1723)
March 21 - Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, French astronomer (b. 1713)
July 10 - Jan Frederik Gronovius, Dutch botanist (b. 1690)
July 13 - James Bradley, English Astronomer Royal (b. 1693)
July 30 - William Braikenridge, English clergyman and geometer (b. 1700)[3]

1762 Death of Dorothea Christiana Leporin Erxleben

References

^ "Today & History". Equitable Life. 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
^ Lambert, Johann Heinrich (1762). "Mémoire sur quelques propriétés remarquables des quantités transcendentes circulaires et logarithmiques". Histoire de l'Académie (Berlin) XVII: 265–322. 1768.
^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (November 1999). "William Braikenridge". MacTutor History of Mathematics. Retrieved 2012-01-24.