1839 in science

The year 1839 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

[edit] Biology

• Theodor Schwann proposes that all living matter is made up of cells

[edit] Chemistry

• Carl Mosander discovers lanthanum

[edit] Exploration

• James Clark Ross sets off on the first scientific expedition to survey Antarctica

[edit] Geology

• Roderick Murchison names the Silurian period

[edit] Technology

• January 9 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process
• Invention of the bicycle by Kirkpatrick Macmillan
• Invention of the fuel cell by William Grove
• Development of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear
• Development of Babbitt metal by Isaac Babbitt

[edit] Awards

• Copley Medal: Robert Brown
• Wollaston Medal: Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg

[edit] Births

• February 11 - Josiah Willard Gibbs (d. 1903), theoretical physicist, chemist.
• April 12 - Nikolai Przhevalsky (d. 1888), explorer.

[edit] Deaths

• April 8 - Pierre Prévost (b. 1751), physicist.
• June 27 - Allan Cunningham (b. 1791), botanist and explorer.
• August 28 - William Smith (b. 1769), geologist
• September 29 - Friedrich Mohs (b. 1773), German mineralogist
• November 15 - William Murdoch (b. 1754), inventor and technician.