The year 1691 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Biology

* Italian Jesuit scholar Filippo Bonanni publishes the results of his microscopic observations of invertebrates in ''Observationes circa Viventia, quae in Rebus non-Viventibus''.

Mathematics

* Gottfried Leibniz discovers the technique of separation of variables for ordinary

differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

. *

Michel Rolle Michel Rolle (21 April 1652 – 8 November 1719) was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem (1691). He is also the co-inventor in Europe of Gaussian elimination (1690). Life Rolle was born in Ambert, Basse-Auvergne. Rol ...

invents

Rolle's theorem In calculus, Rolle's theorem or Rolle's lemma essentially states that any real-valued differentiable function that attains equal values at two distinct points must have at least one stationary point somewhere between them—that is, a point wher ...

Medicine

* Anton Nuck's ''Adenographia curiosa et uteri foeminei anatome nova'' is published at Leiden, including a description of the canal of Nuck and a demonstration that the

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

is derived from the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

and not the

sperm Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, whi ...

Technology

* Edmond Halley devises a diving bell. * In music, the "equal temperament scale" used in modern music is developed by organist

Andreas Werckmeister Andreas Werckmeister (November 30, 1645 – October 26, 1706) was a German organist, music theorist, and composer of the Baroque era. He was amongst the earliest advocates of equal temperament, and through this advocacy was highly influential to t ...

Births

* November 18 –

Mårten Triewald Mårten Triewald FRS (18 November 1691 – 8 August 1747), sometimes referred to as Mårten Triewald the Younger, was a Swedish merchant, engineer and amateur physicist. Mårten Triewald was the son of Mårten Triewald the Elder, a farrier ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

mechanical engineer (died

1747 Events January–March * January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. * February 11 – King George's War: A combined French and Indian force, commanded by Captain Nicolas Antoine II Coul ...

)

Deaths

* January 17 – Richard Lower, English physician who performed the first direct blood transfusion (born

1631 Events January–March * January 23 – Thirty Years' War: Sweden and France sign the Treaty of Bärwalde, a military alliance in which France provides funds for the Swedish army invading northern Germany. * February 5 &ndash ...

) * December 31 – Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish chemist (born

1627 Events January–March * January 26 – The Dutch ship t Gulden Zeepaert'', skippered by François Thijssen, makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia. * February 15 – The administrative rural p ...

)

References

{{reflist 17th century in science 1690s in science