1757 in science

The year 1757 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

 * Nicolas Louis de Lacaille publishes his Astronomiae Fundamenta Novissimus, containing a standard catalogue of 398 bright stars with positions corrected for aberration and nutation.
 * Tobias Mayer presents accurate tables of the Moon's motion to the Board of Longitude in Great Britain.

Chemistry

 * Scottish physician Francis Home publishes The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, an early presentation of the chemical principles underlying plant nutrition, in Edinburgh.

Medicine

 * December 8 – Opening of the "New Lying-In" or Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, designed by Richard Cassels.
 * Albrecht von Haller begins publication of Elementa physiologiae corporis humani in Switzerland.

Physics

 * Leonhard Euler publishes his equations for inviscid flow.

Technology

 * London instrument maker John Bird makes the first navigational sextant.
 * Benjamin Franklin invents a three-wheel clock movement, which later leads to several variants in the design of pendulum clocks.
 * The Grubenmann brothers complete timber arch bridges in Switzerland which include the longest vehicular bridge spans extant at this date:
 * Crossing the Rhine at Schaffhausen in two spans of 52 m and 59 m (by Hans Ulrich)
 * A single-span of 67 m at Reichenau (by Johannes)

Awards

 * Copley Medal: Lord Charles Cavendish

Births

 * January 17 – John Gough, English natural philosopher (died 1825)
 * May 24 – William Charles Wells, Scottish American physician (died 1817)
 * June 22 – George Vancouver, English explorer (died 1798)
 * July 11 – Johann Matthäus Bechstein, German naturalist (died 1822)
 * August 9 – Thomas Telford, Scottish civil engineer (died 1834)
 * November 12 – Robert Willan, English dermatologist (died 1812)
 * date unknown - Agnes Ibbetson, English plant physiologist (died 1823)

Deaths

 * January 9
 * Louis Bertrand Castel, French Jesuit mathematician and physicist (born 1688)
 * Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientific populariser (born 1657)
 * August 28 – David Hartley, English physician and psychologist (born 1705)
 * October 17 – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French physicist (born 1683)