1606 in science

The year 1606 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Cryptography

 * The cryptographic text Steganographia, written by Johannes Trithemius c.1499/1500, is published in Frankfurt.

Exploration

 * February 26
 * Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon makes the first confirmed sighting of Australia by a European.
 * Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the Pitcairn Islands.
 * March – The Dutch ship Duyfken, under Captain Willem Janszoon, explores the western coast of Cape York Peninsula.
 * May – Pedro Fernandes de Queirós discovers the islands of Vanuatu; believing them to be Australia, he names them La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo.
 * October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.

Mathematics

 * Giovanni Antonio Magini devises trigonometric tables of high accuracy.

Physics

 * Approx. date – Galileo invents a thermometer based on the expansion of gas.

Technology

 * The first recorded instance of a bayonet published in the Chinese military treatise Binglu.

Births

 * January 4 (bapt.) – Edmund Castell, English orientalist (died 1685)

Deaths

 * September 28 – Nicolaus Taurellus, German philosopher and scientist (born 1547)
 * November 13 – Girolamo Mercuriale, Italian physician and historian (born 1530)
 * Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, Dutch nautical chart maker (born 1533/4)