1836 in science

Astronomy

• May 15 – Francis Baily, during an eclipse of the sun, observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.

  Biology

• October 2 – Naturalist Charles Darwin returns to Falmouth, England, aboard after a 5-year journey collecting biological data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.
• Writer Georg Büchner's dissertation on the common barbel, Barbus barbus, "Mémoire sur le Système Nerveux du Barbeaux " is published in Paris and Strasbourg. In October, after receiving his doctorate, he is appointed by the University of Zurich as a lecturer in anatomy.
• Theodor Schwann discovers pepsin in extracts from the stomach lining, the first isolation of an animal enzyme.

  Chemistry

• French chemist Auguste Laurent discovers o-phthalic acid by oxidizing naphthalene tetrachloride.
• The chemical compound acetylene, also called ethyne, is discovered by Edmund Davy.
• James Marsh publishes the Marsh test for the presence of arsenic.
• Hungarian chemistry student János Irinyi invents a noiseless match.
• October 24 – The earliest United States patent for a phosphorus friction match is granted to Alonzo Dwight Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts.

  Medicine

• October 13 – Theodor Fliedner, a Lutheran minister, and Friederike, his wife, open the Deaconess Home and Hospital at Kaiserswerth, Germany, as an institute to train women in nursing.

  Physics

• Nicholas Callan invents the first induction coil.
• Andrew Crosse's electrical experiment seems to produce strange insects, acarus calvanicus.

  Technology

• February 25 – Samuel Colt receives a United States patent for the Colt revolver, the first revolving barrel multishot firearm.
• December – Victoria Bridge, Bath, England, opened, the first to use James Dredge's patent 'taper principle' of stays.
• James Nasmyth invents the shaper.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: Jöns Jakob Berzelius; Francis Kiernan
• Wollaston Medal: Louis Agassiz

  Births

• February 5 – Alexander Stewart Herschel, South African-born British astronomer.
• May 17 – Norman Lockyer, English astronomer.
• May 28 – Alexander Mitscherlich, German chemist.
• June 9 – Elizabeth Garrett, English physician.
• July 20 – Clifford Allbutt, English physician.
• August 16 – John Peirce, American inventor.
• September 26 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber and inventor.
• October 27 – Thomas Gwyn Elger, English astronomer.

  Deaths

• February 10 – Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, French chemist.
• June 10 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist.
• September 9 – William Henry, English chemist.
• September 17 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist.