1838 in science

See also: 1837 in science, other events of 1838, 1839 in science and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Astronomy 2 Biology 3 Awards 4 Births 5 Deaths

Astronomy

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star, 61 Cygni, using parallax. Thomas Henderson (Alpha centauri) and Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (Vega) announce their measurements using parallax shortly afterwards

• Proteins discovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius
• Matthias Schleiden discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells

• Copley Medal: Carl Friedrich Gauss
• Wollaston Medal: Richard Owen

• January 5 Camille Jordan, mathematician († 1922)
• January 29 - Edward Morley, chemist († 1923)
• February 18 - Ernst Mach, physicist († 1916)
• April 16 - Ernest Solvay, chemist († 1922)
• April 21 - John Muir, naturalist († 1914)