1676 in science

List of years in science (Table)
… 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 …
Related time period or subjects
… 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 … … 1640s 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s 1700s … … 16th century 17th century 18th century …
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more

The year 1676 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

Danish astronomer Ole Rømer measures the speed of light by observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, obtaining a speed of 140,000 miles per second (approximately 25% too slow).
Summer - The Royal Greenwich Observatory, designed by Christopher Wren, is completed.^[1]

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria, observed with the microscope.
Francis Willughby's Ornithologiae is published by John Ray, the foundation of scientific ornithology.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

William Briggs publishes an anatomy of the eye (the first in England), Ophthalmographia, at Cambridge.^[6]

The first fossilised bone of what is now known to be a dinosaur is discovered in England by Robert Plot, the femur of a Megalosaurus from a limestone quarry at Cornwell near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.^[7]

July 7 - The first clocks using a form of deadbeat escapement, constructed by Thomas Tompion to a design by Richard Towneley, are installed at the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

^ Chambers, R. (1878). The Book of Days.
^ Egerton, Frank N. (October 2005). "A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 18: John Ray and His Associates Francis Willughby and William Derham". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 86 (4): 301–313. http://www.esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_list/history18.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
^ Keynes, Sir Geoffrey (1976). John Ray, 1627–1705: a bibliography 1660–1970. Amsterdam: Van Heusden. p. 52.
^ Raven, Charles E. (1942). John Ray, naturalist: his life and works. Cambridge University Press.
^ Newton, Alfred (1893). Dictionary of Birds. London: Black.
^ Kaplan, Barbara Beigun (2004). "Briggs, William (c.1650–1704)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3413. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3413. Retrieved 2011-10-10. Subscription or UK public library membership required
^ Sarjeant, William A.S. (1997). "The earliert discoveries". In Farlow, James O.; Brett-Surman, Michael K. (eds). The Complete Dinosaur. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 3–11. ISBN 0-253-33349-0.