The year 1780 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology

Clément-Joseph Tissot publishes Gymnastique médicinale et chirurgicale, ou, essai sur l'utilité du mouvement, ou des différens exercices du corps, et du repos dans la cure des malades in Paris, the first text on the therapeutic benefits of physical exercise.
Lazzaro Spallanzani publishes Dissertationi di fisica animale e vegetale, first interpreting the process of animal digestion as a chemical process in the stomach, by action of gastric juice. He also carries out important researches on animal fertilization.

History of science

Dr John Aikin publishes his Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain, the first English language historical dictionary of physicians.

Technology

Aimé Argand invents the Argand lamp.[1]
Thomas Earnshaw devizes the spring detent escapement for marine chronometers.[2]

Awards

Copley Medal: Samuel Vince

Births

April 13 - Alexander Mitchell, Irish engineer and inventor of the screw-pile lighthouse (died 1868).
December 26 - Mary Somerville, British scientific writer (died 1872).

Deaths

January 22 - André Levret, French obstetrician (b. 1703)
October 17 - William Cookworthy, English chemist (born 1705)
undated - John Kay, English inventor (born 1704)

References

^ Wolfe, John J. (1999). Brandy, Balloons, & Lamps: Ami Argand, 1750-1803. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-2278-1.
^ "Earnshaw's Chronometer Escapement". Antique Pocket Watches on the Internet. London: Pieces of Time. Retrieved 2012-03-09.