1728 in science
The year 1728 in science and technology involved some significant events.Astronomy
- James Bradley uses stellar aberration to calculate the speed of light to be approximately 301,000 km/s.
- James Bradley observes nutation of the Earth's axis.
Botany
- September – Bartram's Garden, the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, is established in Philadelphia by John Bartram.
Exploration
- July 14 – August 14 – Vitus Bering sails northward from the Kamchatka Peninsula, through the Bering Strait, and rounds Cape Dezhnev.
Physiology and medicine
- Pierre Fauchard publishes Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou, Traité des Dents, the first comprehensive text on dentistry, including the first description of orthodontic braces.
Births
- February 13 – John Hunter, Scottish surgeon, pathologist and comparative anatomist
- March 20 – Samuel-Auguste Tissot, Swiss physician
- April 16 – Joseph Black, Scottish physicist and chemist
- August 26 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss polymath
- September 3 – Matthew Boulton, English mechanical engineer
- October 27 – James Cook, English explorer
Deaths
- April 25 – John Woodward, English naturalist
- August 11 – William Sherard, English botanist
- Caleb Threlkeld, Irish botanist
