1703 in science

Biology

• Charles Plumier's Nova plantarum Americanarum genera begins publication in Paris. This includes descriptions of Fuchsia, discovered by him on Hispaniola, and naming of the genus Magnolia, applied to species from Martinique.

  Chemistry

• Georg Ernst Stahl, professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Halle, proposes phlogiston theory in the way it comes to be generally understood.

  Mathematics

• Gottfried Leibniz first publishes a description of binary numbers in the West.
• Leonty Magnitsky's Arithmetic is published, the first scientific book in the Russian language.

  Meteorology

• November 24 – December 2 – The Great Storm of 1703, an Atlantic hurricane, ravages southern England and the English Channel, killing nearly 8000, mostly at sea.

  Technology

• An early, crude seismograph is developed by the French physicist Abbé Jean de Hautefeuille.

  Appointments

• November 30 – Isaac Newton is elected president of the Royal Society in London, a position he will hold until his death in 1727.

  Births

• January 8 – André Levret, French obstetrician
• January 15 – Johann Ernst Hebenstreit, German physician and naturalist
• June 21 – Joseph Lieutaud, French physician
• August 23 – Robert James, English physician
• September 16 – Guillaume-François Rouelle, French chemist and apothecary
• October 28 – Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician
• November 25 – Jean-François Séguier, French astronomer and botanist
• December 2 – Ferdinand Konščak, Croatian explorer
• December 9 – Chester Moore Hall, English scientific instrument maker
• undated – Aleksei Chirikov, Russian explorer

  Deaths

• March 3 – Robert Hooke, English scientist
• March 20 – Johann von Löwenstern-Kunckel, German chemist
• September 22 – Vincenzo Viviani, Italian mathematician and scientist
• October 28 – John Wallis, English mathematician