See also: 1837 in science, other events of 1838, 1839 in science and the list of years in science.
Astronomy Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star, 61 Cygni, using parallax. Thomas Henderson (Alpha centauri) and Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve (Vega) announce their measurements using parallax shortly afterwards Biology Proteins discovered by J?s Jacob Berzelius Matthias Schleiden discovers that all living plant tissue is composed of cells Awards Copley Medal: Carl Friedrich Gauss Wollaston Medal: Richard Owen Births January 5 Camille Jordan, mathematician († 1922) January 29 - Edward Morley, chemist († 1923) February 18 - Ernst Mach, physicist († 1916) April 16 - Ernest Solvay, chemist († 1922) April 21 - John Muir, naturalist († 1914) Deaths