See also: 1837 in science, other events of 1838, 1839 in science and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Astronomy 2 Biology 3 Chemistry 4 Exploration 5 Technology 6 Awards 7 Births 8 Deaths

Astronomy

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star, 61 Cygni, using parallax. Thomas Henderson (Alpha centauri) and Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (Vega) announce their measurements using parallax shortly afterwards.
• Claude Servais Mathias Pouillet makes the first quantitative measurements of the heat emitted by the Sun.

• Proteins discovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius
• Matthias Schleiden discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells.

• Bulat steel alloy developed by Pavel Petrovich Anosov.

• In Australia, Charles Sturt proves that the Hume and Murray are the same river.

• January 6 - Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates the electrical telegraph.
• David Bruce, Jr., invents the Pivotal Typecaster, which replaced hand typecasting in printing.

• Copley Medal: Carl Friedrich Gauss
• Wollaston Medal: Richard Owen

• January 5 Camille Jordan, mathematician (died 1922)
• January 29 - Edward Morley, chemist (died 1923)
• February 18 - Ernst Mach, physicist (died 1916)
• March 3 - George William Hill, astronomer (died 1914)
• April 8 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin, founder of the Zeppelin airship company (died 1917)
• April 16 - Ernest Solvay, chemist (died 1922)
• April 21 - John Muir, naturalist (died 1914)