1848 in science

The year 1848 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

Astronomy

• Lord Rosse studies M1 and names it the Crab Nebula
• William Cranch Bond and William Lassell discover Hyperion, Saturn's moon

Biology

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace first propose their theory of evolution by means of natural selection in a paper to the Linnean Society of London.

Physics

• Lord Kelvin discovers the absolute zero point of temperature

Awards

• Copley Medal: John Couch Adams
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: William Buckland

Births

• May 23 – Otto Lilienthal (d. 1896), aviation pioneer.
• November 8 – Gottlob Frege (d. 1925), mathematician.

Deaths

• January 9 – Caroline Herschel (b. 1750), astronomer.
• August 7 – Jöns Jakob Berzelius (b. 1779), chemist.
• August 12 – George Stephenson (b. 1781), locomotive engineer.
• December 18 – Bernhard Bolzano (b. 1781), mathematician.