1800 in science

• January 13 – Royal Institution of Great Britain granted a royal charter. ==Astronomy==

• The central star of the Ring Nebula is discovered by Friedrich von Hahn: the central star is a white dwarf star with a temperature of between 100,000 and 120,000 K. ==Chemistry==

• Beryllium is discovered by Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff in beryl from Saxony, a new earth; he calls it Agusterde ("August Earth"). • Fulminates are discovered by Edward Howard. • Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, begins publication in Paris of the comprehensive chemistry textbook ''Système des connaissances chimiques et de leurs applications aux phénomènes de la nature et de l'art''. ==Earth sciences==

• October – Volcanic eruption of Mount Guntur in West Java. ==Exploration==

• The Antipodes Islands, at this time the home of large herds of fur seals, are discovered by the crew of the British ship HMS Reliance. • Jacques Labillardière publishes Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse in Paris. ==Medicine==

• March 22 – Company of Surgeons granted a royal charter to become the Royal College of Surgeons in London. • Xavier Bichat publishes Traité sur les membranes and Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort, pioneering texts in histology and pathology. • Andrea Vaccà Berlinghieri publishes Traité des maladies vénériennes (Treatise on venereal diseases). • Georges Cuvier begins publishing his ''Leçons d'anatomie comparée'' (5 volumes, 1800-1805). ==Paleontology==

• Cuvier publishes a brief description of the pterodactyl. ==Physics==

• Alessandro Volta devises the first chemical battery, thereby founding the discipline of electrochemistry. • Infrared rays are discovered by William Herschel, an English astronomer of German origin. ==Technology==

• Yeast is discovered as a new way to make beer ferment (beer made before 1800 was lambic). • Robert Fulton builds a practical experimental manually-propelled naval submarine Nautilus in France (first test dive July 29 at Rouen). • Henry Maudslay develops the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe, allowing standardisation of screw thread sizes for the first time, in London. • The first design for a cast iron twin leaf swing bridge is produced by Ralph Walker for London Docks. ==Zoology==

• November 4 – Major-General Thomas Davies first describes the superb lyrebird. ==Awards==

• Copley Medal: Edward Charles Howard ==Births==

• January 14 – Ludwig von Köchel, Austrian musicologist and botanist (died 1877) • February 11 – H. Fox Talbot, English pioneer of photography (died 1877) • February 12 – John Edward Gray, English taxonomist (died 1875) • February 23 – William Jardine, Scottish naturalist (died 1874) • February 27 – Robert Willis, English mechanical engineer, phonetician and architectural historian (died 1875) • March 3 – Heinrich Georg Bronn, German geologist, paleontologist (died 1862) • March 14 – James Bogardus, American inventor (died 1874) • April 15 – James Clark Ross, English explorer of the Polar regions (died 1862) • May 25 – Leonard Jenyns, English natural historian (died 1893) • July 31 – Friedrich Woehler, German chemist (died 1882) • August 26 – Félix Archimède Pouchet, French natural scientist (died 1872) • August 20 – Bernhard Heine, German physician, bone specialist and inventor (died 1846) • September 22 – George Bentham, English botanist (died 1884) • October 23 – Henri Milne-Edwards, French zoologist (died 1885) • December 25 – John Phillips, English geologist (died 1874) • December 29 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor of the vulcanization process (died 1860) • Anna Volkova, Russian chemist (died 1876) ==Deaths==

• January 1 – Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, French naturalist (born 1716) • January 16 – Johann Christian Wiegleb, German chemist (born 1732) • March 14 – Daines Barrington, English naturalist (born 1727) • March 29 – Marc René, marquis de Montalembert, French military engineer (born 1714) • May 23 – Henry Cort, English ironmaster (born 1740) • June 20 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (born 1719) • July 14 – Lorenzo Mascheroni, Italian mathematician (born 1750) • September 10 – Johann David Schoepff, German naturalist and physician (born 1752) • October 4 – Johann Hermann, German physician, naturalist (born 1738) • November 5 – Jesse Ramsden, English scientific instrument maker (born 1735) • December – Jean-Baptiste Audebert, French natural history painter (born 1752) • December 30 – Thomas Dimsdale, English physician, banker and politician, pioneer of variolation (born 1712) ==References==