1672 in science

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The year 1672 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• John Flamsteed determines the solar parallax from observations of Mars.
• Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn.
• Sir Isaac Newton reads his first Optiks paper before the Royal Society of London.

Botany

• Robert Morison publishes Plantarum Umbelliferarum Distributio Nova, per Tabulas Cognationis et Affinitatis, ex Libra Naturae observata et detecta, the first monograph devoted to a specific group of plants, the Umbelliferae.

Mathematics

• Georg Mohr publishes the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, that any geometric construction that can be performed by a compass and straightedge can be performed by a compass alone.

Medicine

• Paul Barbette publishes Opera omnia medica et chirurgica.
• Isbrand van Diemerbroeck publishes the first edition of his Anatome corporis humani in Utrecht.
• Thomas Willis publishes the earliest English work on medical psychology, Two Discourses concerning The Soul of Brutes, Which is that of the Vital and Sensitive of Man.

Technology

• Dutch painter Jan van der Heyden improves the fire hose, with his brother Nicolaes, a hydraulic engineer.

Births

• February 13 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (died 1731)
• August 2 – Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss natural historian (died 1733)
• Ann Baynard, English natural philosopher (died 1697)

Deaths

• March – Peter Blondeau, French-born pioneer of mechanised minting of coin
• April 26 – Lionel Lockyer, English quack doctor (born c. 1600)
• November 19 – Bishop John Wilkins, English natural philosopher, co-founder of the Royal Society (born 1614)
• late – Semyon Dezhnyov, Pomor navigator who in 1648 made the first recorded voyage through the Bering Strait (born c. 1605)