1678 in science
# 1678 in science

The year 1678 in science and technology involved some significant events.

## Astronomy

* Edmund Halley publishes a catalogue of 341 southern stars—the first systematic southern sky survey.

## Physics

* Christiaan Huygens publishes his Traité de la Lumière/Treatise on Light, which states his principle of wavefront sources.
* Robert Hooke discovers the fundamental law of elasticity when he finds that the stress (force) exerted is proportional to the strain (elongation) produced.

## Zoology

* Publication of English Spiders by Martin Lister, the first book devoted to spiders.

## Births

* April 14 – Abraham Darby I, ironmaster (died 1717)
* July 16 – Jakob Hermann, mathematician (died 1733)
* October 27 – Pierre Raymond de Montmort, mathematician (died 1719)
* November 26 – Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan, geophysicist (died 1771)
* December 2 – Nicolaas Kruik (Cruquius), cartographer and meteorologist (died 1754)
* unknown – Pierre Fauchard, physician and "father of modern dentistry" (died 1761)

## Deaths

* November 28 – Willem Piso, physician and naturalist (born 1611)
