1849 in science

The year 1849 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

See also: 1848 in science, other events of 1849, 1850 in science and the list of years in science.

Astronomy

• Édouard Roche finds the limiting radius of tidal destruction and tidal creation for a body held together only by its self gravity, called the Roche limit, and uses it to explain why Saturn's rings do not condense into a satellite

Biology

• Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.

Mathematics

• George Gabriel Stokes shows that solitary waves can arise from a combination of periodic waves

Physics

• Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault measure the speed of light to be about 298,000 km/s

Awards

• Copley Medal: Roderick Murchison
• Wollaston Medal for Geology: Joseph Prestwich

Births

• April 25 - Felix Klein, German mathematician (died 1925)
• October 26 - Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (died 1917)

Deaths

• December 12 - Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer (born 1769)