The year 1751 in science and technology involved some significant events.#

Astronomy

The globular cluster 47 Tucanae (or 47 Tuc), visible with the unaided eye from the southern hemisphere, is discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who catalogues it in his list of southern nebulous objects: at a distance of 16000 lightyears, it has a total mass nearly 1 million times the Sun's mass and is 120 light years across, making it appear in the sky as wide as the full moon.

Biology

Linnaeus publishes his Philosophia Botanica, the first textbook of descriptive systematic botanical taxonomy and the first appearance of his binomial nomenclature.

Chemistry

Nickel (symbol Ni, atomic weight 58.71, atomic number 28) is discovered, in the mineral nickeline, by chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt in Stockholm, Sweden (although nickel was used in coins in China as early as 235 BCE).

Medicine and physiology

May 11 - Pennsylvania Hospital founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, the first in the United States.[1]
The pupil reflex is discovered: it is the first reflex of the human body to be discovered.

Publications

Commencement of publication in Paris of the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers edited by Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert.

Awards

Copley Medal: John Canton

Births

March 3 - Pierre Prévost, Swiss philosopher and physicist (d. 1839)
July 1 - Antide Janvier, French precision clockmaker (d. 1835)
December 10 - George Shaw, English naturalist (d. 1813)

Deaths

June 9 - John Machin, English mathematician and astronomer (b. c.1686)
August 30 - Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (b. 1661)
November 30 - Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux, Swiss mathematician and astronomer (b. 1718)

References

^ "Historic Tours". Penn Medicine. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2011-09-27.