1610 in science

Title page of Sidereus Nuncius (1610), by Galileo Galilei

The year 1610 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• January 7 – Galileo Galilei first observes the four large Galilean moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io, although he is unable to distinguish the latter two until the following night. In the same year he publishes his first observations by telescope in a short treatise entitled Sidereus Nuncius ("Sidereal Messenger").
• December – English scientist Thomas Harriot becomes one of the first to view sunspots through a telescope^[1][2]
• The Orion Nebula is discovered by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc.

Medicine

• Diphtheria epidemic in Naples, during which Marco Aurelio Severino performs successful tracheotomies.^[3]

Technology

• Jean Beguin publishes Tyrocinium Chymicum, the first book of chemistry lectures.
• Tinsel is invented by a German silversmith, who uses real silver for the metal strands.
• Bagels are created in Kraków, Poland and given as gifts to women after childbirth.

Births

• February 2 – Pierre Bourdelot, French physician, anatomist, freethinker, abbé and libertine (died 1685)
• Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (died 1664)
• Marie Meurdrac, French chemist and alchemist (died 1680)

Deaths

• Abul Qasim ibn Mohammed al-Ghassani, Moroccan physician (born 1548)
• Nikola Vitov Gučetić, Ragusan polymath (born 1549)
• Peter Lowe, Scottish surgeon (born c. 1550)
• Paarangot Jyeshtadevan Namboodiri, Keralan mathematician and astronomer (born c. 1500)
• December 31 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (born 1540)

References

1. "Thomas Harriot (1560–1621)". The Galileo Project. 1995. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
2. Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 243–248. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
3. Armytage, W.H.G. (1960). "Giambattista della Porta and the Segreti". British Medical Journal. 1 (5179): 1129–30. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.5179.1129. PMC 1966956.