1768 in science

	… 1758; 1759; 1760; 1761; 1762; 1763; 1764; ; 1765; 1766; 1767; 1768; 1769; 1770; 1771; ; 1772; 1773; 1774; 1775; 1776; 1777; 1778 …;
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; ; Science +...;

The year 1768 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology[]

Steller's sea cow is hunted to extinction.
Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti becomes auctor of the class of reptiles through his Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena on the poisonous function of reptiles and amphibians. He also publishes Il Dragone describing the olm, one of the first accounts of a cave animal in the western world.
Caspar Friedrich Wolff begins publication of "De Formatione Intestinarum" in the Mémoires of The Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences (Saint Petersburg), a significant work in the science of embryology.^[1]
Lazzaro Spallanzani challenges the spontaneous generation of cellular life.

March 17 – William Cookworthy is granted a patent for the manufacture of porcelain from kaolinite in England.^[3]

Leonhard Euler uses closed curves (which become known as Euler diagrams) to illustrate syllogistic reasoning.^[4]^[5]

Leonhard Euler's Letters to a German Princess (Lettres à une princesse d'Allemagne sur divers sujets de physique et de philosophie) are first published, in Saint Petersburg.

February 15 – Anthony Carlisle, English surgeon (died 1840)
March 21 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (died 1830)
March 22 – Bryan Donkin, English engineer and inventor (died 1855)
July 18
- Jean-Robert Argand, French mathematician (died 1822)
- Giuseppangelo Fonzi, Italian dentist (died 1840)^[7]
date unknown
- Marie-Jeanne de Lalande, French astronomer (died 1832)
- Edward Donovan, Anglo-Irish natural historian (died 1837)
- Amelia Griffiths, English phycologist (died 1858)
- Wang Zhenyi, female Chinese astronomer (died 1797)

^ Petrunkevitch, Alexander (June 1920). "Russia's Contribution to Science". Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. New Haven. 23: 235.
^ "Genus: Bougainvillea Comm. ex Juss". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2010-07-07. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
^ "William Cookworthy 1705-80". Three Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol – The Story of Bristol Pottery and Porcelain. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-17.
^ Euler, L. (1768). Lettres à une Princesse d'Allemagne. Saint Petersburg.
^ Baron, Margaret E. (May 1969). "A Note on The Historical Development of Logic Diagrams: Leibniz, Euler and Venn". The Mathematical Gazette. Mathematical Association. 53 (383): 113–125. JSTOR 3614533.
^ "Copley Medal | British scientific award". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
^ Giuseppangelo Lucinto Fonzi entry (in Italian) by Luciano Bonuzzi in the Enciclopedia italiana, 1997
^ Mann, Ralph (2004). "Stone, Edward (1702–1768)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-02-17. (subscription or UK public library membership required)