1856 in science

Archaeology

• First remains of Neanderthal Man found in the Neandertal Valley of Germany.

  Astronomy

• N. R. Pogson proposes that the ratio used in Hipparchus' stellar apparent magnitude system should be adopted as a standard.
• NGC 6539 is discovered by Theodor Brorsen.

  Biology

• Paul Du Chaillu becomes the first European to observe gorillas in the wild.
• Gregor Mendel starts his research on genetics.
• Lev Tsenkovsky introduces the concept that the lower algae and other infusoria are unicellular organisms.

  Chemistry

• March – William Perkin first discovers an aniline dye, mauveine.
• Alexander Parkes patents the first thermoplastic, Parkesine.
• Louis Pasteur crystallizes galactose.
• Charles-Adolphe Wurtz discovers the glycols.

  Exploration

• May 20 – Dr David Livingstone arrives at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean having completed a 2-year transcontinental journey across Africa from Luanda.
• Thomas Montgomerie of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India makes the first survey of the Karakoram Range, from Mount Haramukh, to the south, and designates the two most prominent peaks as K1 and K2.

  Meteorology

• August 23 – Eunice Newton Foote's paper on "Circumstances affecting the heat of the sun's rays" read at the American Association for the Advancement of Science presents the causes of the greenhouse effect.
• October 4 – American meteorologist William Ferrel demonstrates the tendency of rising and rotating warm air to pull in air from more southerly, warmer regions and transport it poleward.

  Paleontology

• American paleontologist Joseph Leidy describes the new tyrannosaurid dinosaur genus and species Deinodon horridus.

  Physics

• Henry Darcy formulates Darcy's law on fluid flow.

  Technology

• September 22 – British metallurgist Robert Mushet patents improvements to the Bessemer process for the production of steel.
• English agricultural engineer John Fowler first demonstrates his steam-driven agricultural ploughing system.
• English engineer John Ramsbottom invents a tamper-proof spring safety valve for steam locomotives.
• French chemist Alphonse Louis Poitevin invents the collotype photographic process.
• Tinsmith Ralph Collier of Baltimore, Maryland, patents the first egg beater with rotating parts.
• Sarrusophone patented.
• Approximate date – Bandoneon invented.

  Awards

• Copley Medal: Henri Milne-Edwards
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: William Edmond Logan

  Births

• February 15 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist.
• May 6
• * Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst.
• * Robert Peary, American polar explorer.
• July 10 – Nikola Tesla, Serb inventor.
• August 27 – Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen, Danish ornithologist.
• September 14 – Sergei Winogradsky, Russian microbiologist.
• December 18 – J. J. Thomson, English physicist and Nobel laureate in physics.

  Deaths

• February 24 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician and geometer.
• February 25 – George Don, Scottish botanist.
• July 9 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist.
• August 24 – William Buckland, English geologist and paleontologist.
• November 20 – Farkas Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician.
• November 21 – James Meadows Rendel, English civil engineer.
• December 23/24 – Hugh Miller, Scottish geologist.
• date unknown - Enriqueta Favez, Swiss physician and surgeon.