1666 in science

Events

• December 22 – French Academy of Sciences first meets.

Astronomy

• Publication of Stanisław Lubieniecki's Theatrum Cometicum begins in Amsterdam, the first encyclopedia and atlas of comets.

Botany

• Establishment of Herrenhäuser Gärten, Hanover.

Mathematics

• Isaac Newton develops differential calculus.
• Samuel Morland produces several designs of pocket calculating machine and also publishes A New Method of Cryptography.

Physics

• Isaac Newton uses a prism to split sunlight into the component colours of the optical spectrum, assisting understanding of the nature of light.
• Robert Hooke and Giovanni Alfonso Borelli both expound gravitation as an attractive force (Hooke's lecture "On gravity" at the Royal Society of London on March 21; Borelli's Theoricae Mediceorum planetarum ex causis physicis deductae, published in Florence later in the year).

Publications

• Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne, publishes Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, including an attack on Robert Hooke's Micrographia.

Births

• December – Stephen Gray, English scientist (died 1736)

Deaths

• Giovanni Battista Baliani, Genoese physicist (born 1582)
• Song Yingxing, Chinese encyclopedist (born 1587)

References

References

1. Dickinson, H. W.. (1970). "Sir Samuel Morland: diplomat and inventor 1625–1695". Heffer for the Newcomen Society.
2. Wilson, Curtis. (1989). "Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the rise of astrophysics: 2A: Tycho Brahe to Newton". Cambridge University Press.
3. Fitzmaurice, James. (2004). "Cavendish, Margaret, duchess of Newcastle upon Tyne (1623?–1673)". [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]].