1753 in science

The year 1753 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

 * Ruđer Bošković's De lunae atmosphaera demonstrates the lack of atmosphere on the Moon.

Botany

 * May 1 – Publication of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, the start of formal scientific classification of plants.
 * June – Establishment in Florence of the Accademia dei Georgofili, the world's oldest society devoted to agronomy and scientific agriculture.

Chemistry

 * Claude François Geoffroy demonstrates that bismuth is distinct from lead and tin.

Computer science

 * January 1 – Retrospectively, the minimum date value for a datetime field in an SQL Server (up to version 2005) due to this being the first full year since Britain's adoption of the Gregorian calendar.

Medicine

 * James Lind publishes the first edition of A Treatise on the Scurvy (although it is little noticed at this time).

Physics

 * November 25 – The Russian Academy of Sciences announces a competition among chemists and physicists to provide "the best explanation of the true causes of electricity including their theory"; the prize will be won in 1755 by Johann Euler.

Technology

 * February 17 – The concept of electrical telegraphy is first published in the form of a letter from 'C. M.' to The Scots' Magazine.
 * Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod, to ring a bell when struck by lightning, following his 1752 kite and key tests.
 * George Semple uses hydraulic lime cement in rebuilding Essex Bridge in Dublin.

Awards

 * Copley Medal: Benjamin Franklin

Births

 * March 26 – Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, Anglo-American physicist (died 1814)
 * April 28 – Franz Karl Achard, chemist (died 1821)
 * August 3 – Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, British statesman and scientist (died 1816)

Deaths

 * August 6 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist, electrocuted (born 1711)
 * December – Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher (born 1726)