1650 in science
Encyclopedia
The year 1650 in science
and technology
involved some significant events.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
involved some significant events.
Astronomy
- In Ursa MajorUrsa MajorUrsa Major , also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. It can best be seen in April...
, the handle's middle star, MizarMizar (star)The Mizar–Alcor stellar sextuple system consists of the quadruple system Mizar and the binary system Alcor.- Description :Mizar is a quadruple system of two binary stars in the constellation Ursa Major and is the second star from the end of the Big Dipper's handle. Its apparent magnitude is 2.23...
, is noted to be a binary star by Giambattista Riccioli.
Botany
- Begonias are first discovered by Francisco HernandezFrancisco HernándezFrancisco Hernández was a football player from Costa Rica. Better known as "Chico", he played his entire career for Deportivo Saprissa, where he was captain and an idol. He is vastly remembered for his quickness, great shooting skills, leadership and sense of team organizement inside the field...
. - William How publishes his flora Phytologia Britannica.
- Posthumous publication begins of Johann BauhinJohann BauhinJohann Bauhin was a Swiss botanist.He studied botany at Tübingen under Leonhart Fuchs . He then travelled with Conrad Gessner, after which he started a practise of medicine at Basel, where he was elected Professor of Rhetoric in 1566...
's Historia plantarum universalis at Yverdon.
Geology
- The Kolumbo underwater volcano in the Aegean SeaAegean SeaThe Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
is discovered when it bursts from the sea and erupts, killing 70 people on a nearby island.
Births
- approx. date - Thomas SaveryThomas SaveryThomas Savery was an English inventor, born at Shilstone, a manor house near Modbury, Devon, England.-Career:Savery became a military engineer, rising to the rank of Captain by 1702, and spent his free time performing experiments in mechanics...
, EnglishEnglish peopleThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
engineer, inventor of a steam pump (d. 17151715 in scienceThe year 1715 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Astronomy:* May 3 - Total solar eclipse across southern England, Sweden and Finland ....
)
Deaths
- February 11 - René DescartesRené DescartesRené Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, FrenchFrench peopleThe French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
(b. 15961596 in scienceThe year 1596 in science and technology included some significant events.-Astronomy:* David Fabricius discovers the first non-supernova variable star, Omicron Ceti....
) - June 30 - Niccolò CabeoNiccolo CabeoNiccolò Cabeo was an Italian Jesuit philosopher, theologian, engineer and mathematician.-Biography:He was born in Ferrara in 1586, and was educated at the Jesuit college in Parma beginning in 1602...
, ItalianItalian peopleThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
polymathPolymathA polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
(b. 15861586 in scienceThe year 1586 in science and technology included a number of events, some of which are listed here.-Botany:* Jacques Daléchamps publishes Historia generalis plantarum in Lyon, describing 2731 plants, a record number for this time.-Cryptography:...
) - July 18 - Christoph ScheinerChristoph ScheinerChristoph Scheiner SJ was a Jesuit priest, physicist and astronomer in Ingolstadt....
, German astronomerAstronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
(b. 15731573 in scienceThe year 1573 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.-Births:* January 10 - Simon Marius, German astronomer who named the Galilean moons of Jupiter ....
) - August - John ParkinsonJohn Parkinson (botanist)John Parkinson was the last of the great English herbalists and one of the first of the great English botanists. He was apothecary to James I and a founding member of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in December 1617, and was later Royal Botanist to Charles I...
, English herbalistHerbalistAn herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
and botanist (b. 15671567 in scienceThe year 1567 in science and technology included a number of events, some of which are listed here.-Births:* John Parkinson, English herbalist and botanist -Deaths:* April 19 - Michael Stifel, German mathematician...
) - Giovanni Battista ZupiGiovanni Battista ZupiGiovanni Battista Zupi or Zupus was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, and Jesuit priest.He was born in Catanzaro. In 1639, Giovanni was the first person to discover that the planet Mercury had orbital phases, just like the Moon and Venus. His observations demonstrated that the planet orbited...
, Italian astronomer (b. c.15901590 in scienceThe year 1590 in science and technology involved some significant events.-Optics:* Glass lenses are developed in the Netherlands and used for the first time in microscopes and telescopes....
)