Editing 1672 in science

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{{Year nav topic5|1672|science}}
{{Science year nav|1672}}

[[File:NewtonsTelescopeReplica.jpg | thumb | 220x124px | right | alt= A large brown telescope with black rims mounted on a brown sphere  | A replica of Isaac Newton’s second reflecting telescope of 1672. ]]
The year '''1672 in [[science]]''' and [[technology]] involved some significant events.

==Astronomy==
* February 6 – [[Isaac Newton]] submits his first paper on [[optics]] to the [[Royal Society]] of London.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1432118#.YjjdwzjMJEY|title=A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton, Professor of the Mathematicks in the University of Cambridge; Containing His New Theory about Light and Colors: Sent by the Author to the Publisher from Cambridge, Febr. 6. 1671/72; In Order to be Communicated to the R. Society|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|location=London|date=1672-02-19|quote=The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations.}}</ref>
* December 23 – [[Giovanni Domenico Cassini|Giovanni Cassini]] discovers [[Rhea (moon)|Rhea]], a satellite of [[Saturn]].
* [[John Flamsteed]] determines the solar [[parallax]] from observations of [[Mars]].

==Botany==
* [[Robert Morison]] publishes ''Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova, per Tabulas Cognationis et Affinitatis, ex Libra Naturae observata et detecta'', the first monograph devoted to a specific group of plants, the ''[[Umbelliferae]]''.<ref name="MBB">{{cite book|last=Oliver|first=Francis Wall|title=Makers of British Botany|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1913|pages=15–16|chapter=Robert Morison 1620–1683...|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Makers_of_British_botany/Robert_Morison_1620%E2%80%941683_and_John_Ray_1627%E2%80%941705}}</ref>

==Mathematics==
* [[Georg Mohr]] publishes the [[Mohr–Mascheroni theorem]], that any geometric construction that can be performed by a [[compass and straightedge]] can be performed by a compass alone.<ref>{{cite book|first=Georg|last=Mohr|title=Euclides Danicus|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Jacob van Velsen|year=1672}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Crilly|title=50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know|location=London|publisher=Quercus|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84724-008-8|page=80}}</ref>

==Medicine==
* [[Paul Barbette]] publishes ''Opera omnia medica et chirurgica''.
* [[Richard Lower (physician)|Richard Lower]] publishes ''De Catarrhis'', the first scholarly attempt by an English physician to take a classical doctrine (the theory that nasal [[catarrh]] is caused by secretions overspilling from the brain) and to disprove it by scientific experiment.
* Dutch physician [[Regnier de Graaf]] describes the female reproductive system.<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/BIUSante_34292/page/n3 De mulierum organis generationi inservientibus tractatus novus: demonstrans tam homines & animalia caetera omnia, quae vivipara dicuntur, haud minus quàm ovipara ab ovo originem ducere.]''</ref>
* [[Isbrand van Diemerbroeck]] publishes the first edition of his ''Anatome corporis humani'' in [[Utrecht]].
* [[Thomas Willis]] publishes the earliest [[English language|English]] work on medical [[psychology]], ''Two Discourses concerning The Soul of Brutes, Which is that of the Vital and Sensitive of Man''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Thomas Willis|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/336.html|work=[[Who Named It?|Whonamedit?]]|accessdate=2011-03-15}}</ref>

==Technology==
* [[Netherlands|Dutch]] painter [[Jan van der Heyden]] improves the [[fire hose]], with his brother Nicolaes, a [[Hydraulic engineering|hydraulic engineer]].

==Institutions==
* January 11 – [[Isaac Newton]] is elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] of London<ref>{{cite web|year=2015|title=Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660-2015|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|publisher=Royal Society|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185820/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|archive-date=2015-10-15|url-status=dead}}</ref> and it then demonstrates his [[Newtonian telescope|reflecting telescope]] to King [[Charles II of England]].

==Births==
* February 13 – [[Étienne François Geoffroy]], [[French people|French]] [[chemist]] (died [[1731 in science|1731]])
* August 2 – [[Johann Jakob Scheuchzer]], [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[natural historian]] (died [[1733 in science|1733]])
* [[Ann Baynard]], [[English people|English]] [[natural philosopher]]  (died [[1697 in science|1697]])

==Deaths==
* March – [[Peter Blondeau]], French-born pioneer of mechanised [[Mint (coin)|minting of coin]]
* April 26 – [[Lionel Lockyer]], English [[quack doctor]] (born c. [[1600 in science|1600]])
* July 3 – [[Francis Willughby]], English [[ornithologist]] and [[ichthyologist]], pleurisy (born [[1635 in science|1635]])
* November 19 – [[John Wilkins]], English bishop and natural philosopher, co-founder of the [[Royal Society]] (born [[1614 in science|1614]])
* late – [[Semyon Dezhnev]], [[Pomor]] navigator who in [[1648 in science|1648]] made the first recorded voyage through the [[Bering Strait]] (born c. [[1605 in science|1605]])

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1672 in science| ]]
[[Category:17th century in science]]
[[Category:1670s in science]]