Editing 1802 in science (section)

==Geology==
* [[James Smithson]] proves that [[zinc carbonate]]s are true [[carbonate]] minerals and not [[zinc oxide]]s, as was previously thought.<ref>{{cite web|title=Who was James Smithson? – A Man of Science|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html|publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]]|access-date=2007-06-18| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612070808/http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/who_04.html| archive-date=12 June 2007 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Smithson|first=James|title=A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines|url=http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/calamine.html|journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]]|volume=Pt. I|year=1803| access-date= 25 February 2011 <!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>
* [[John Playfair]] publishes ''Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth'' in [[Edinburgh]], popularising [[James Hutton]]'s theory of geology.
* [[James Sowerby]] begins to issue his ''British Mineralogy, or, coloured figures intended to elucidate the mineralogy of Great Britain'' in London, the first comprehensive illustrated reference work on the subject.