1697 in science

Technology

• Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, studies shipbuilding and other technologies in Holland.

  Organizations

• January – Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle becomes perpetual secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, in succession to Jean-Baptiste du Hamel.

  Publications

• First known publication of English physician Richard Boulton, A Treatise of the Reason of Muscular Motion.
• William Dampier publishes A New Voyage Round the World in London.

  Births

• February 24 – Bernhard Siegfried Weiss, later known as Albinus, German-born Dutch anatomist
• February 5 – William Smellie, Scottish obstetrician
• September 23 – Andrew Plummer, Scottish physician and chemist

  Deaths

• January 26 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician
• March 1 – Francesco Redi, Tuscan physician and biologist
• Late October – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch statesman and telescope maker
• December 9 – Scipion Abeille, French surgeon and poet
• Probable year – Gilbert Clerke, English mathematician, natural philosopher and theologian
• Ann Baynard, English natural philosopher