1830 in science

Astronomy

• March 16 – Great Comet of 1830 first observed in Mauritius.
• Johann Heinrich Mädler and Wilhelm Beer produce the first map of the surface of Mars.

  Biology

• Charles Bell publishes his Nervous System of the Human Body.
• William Jackson Hooker commences publication of The British Flora.

  Exploration

• October 14 – returns to England from her first voyage, a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America.

  Geology

• Charles Lyell publishes the first volume of his Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation.

  Medicine

• Thomas Southwood Smith publishes the standard textbook A Treatise on Fever in London.

  Technology

• July 13 – John Ruggles is granted United States patent , for applying rack railway equipment to the "Locomotive steam-engine for rail and other roads".
• August 31 – Edwin Budding is granted a United Kingdom patent for the lawnmower.
• Aeneas Coffey is granted a United Kingdom patent for an improved column still.
• Eaton Hodgkinson publishes his pioneering paper on the optimum cross section for cast iron structural beams.
• Stephen H. Long designs the Long truss wooden bridge.

  Publications

• Charles Babbage publishes .

  Awards

• Copley Medal: not awarded

  Births

• March 5 – Étienne-Jules Marey, French physiologist.
• March 5 – Charles Wyville Thomson, Scottish marine biologist.
• April 21 - Clémence Royer, French anthropologist.
• May 10 – François-Marie Raoult, French chemist.
• May 11 – Emanoil Bacaloglu, Romanian polymath.
• August 19 – Lothar Meyer, German chemist.
• October 24 – Marianne North, English botanist.
• November 20 – Sigismond Jaccoud, Swiss physician.

  Deaths

• March 2 – Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring, German physician, anatomist, paleontologist and inventor.
• March 29 – James Rennell, English cartographer and oceanographer.
• May 16 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician.
• August 24 – Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, French ornithologist.
• Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi, Italian botanist.