1638 in science
The year 1638 in science and technology involved some significant events.Astronomy
- December 21 – Total eclipse of the moon falls on the same day as the winter solstice, for the first time in the Common Era.
Geology
- March 27 earthquake in Calabria .
- June 8 earthquake in Calabria. The epicentre was in Crotone.
Physics
- The final book of the now-blind Galileo, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche, intorno à due nuove scienze is published in Leiden, dealing with the strength of materials and the motion of objects. In it, he discusses the square-cube law, the law of falling bodies and infinity. He also discusses his experimental method for measuring the speed of light; he has been unable to determine it over a short distance.
Publications
- Publication of The Man in the Moone, or the Discovrse of a Voyage thither "by Domingo Gonsales", an early example of science fiction.
Births
- January 1 – Nicolas Steno, Danish pioneer of geology
- March 28 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist
- April 19 - Niccolao Manucci, Italian physician, writer and traveller
- May 11 – Guy-Crescent Fagon, French physician and botanist
- June 8 – Pierre Magnol, French botanist
- June 29 - Heinrich Meibom, German physician and scholar
- July 22 - Theodor Kerckring, Dutch anatomist and chemical physician
- November 21 - Luca Tozzi, Italian physician
- November – James Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer
- Paolo Falconieri, Florentine polymath
Deaths
- February 26 – Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac, French mathematician
- April 15/16 – John Tradescant the elder, English botanist
- October 21 – Willem Blaeu, Dutch cartographer
- October 29 – Adrian von Mynsicht, German alchemist
- December 7 - Epifanio Ferdinando, Italian physician and philosoph