The year 1728 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• James Bradley uses stellar aberration (first observed in 1725) to calculate the speed of light to be approximately 301 000 km/s.^[1]
• James Bradley observes nutation of the Earth's axis.^[1]

Exploration

• July 14–August 14 - Vitus Bering sails northward from the Kamchatka Peninsula, through the Bering Strait, and rounds Cape Dezhnev.

Physiology and medicine

• Pierre Fauchard publishes Le Chirurgien Dentiste, ou, Trait des Dents, the first comprehensive text on dentistry, including the first description of orthodontic braces.^[2]

Births

• February 13 - John Hunter, Scottish surgeon, pathologist and comparative anatomist (died 1793)
• March 20 - Samuel-Auguste Tissot, Swiss physician (died 1797)
• April 16 - Joseph Black, Scottish physicist and chemist (died 1799)
• September 3 - Matthew Boulton, English mechanical engineer (died 1809)
• October 27 - James Cook, English explorer (died 1779)

Deaths

• August 11 - William Sherard, English botanist (born 1659)

References

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