The year 1678 in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed here.

See also: 1677 in science, other events of 1678, 1679 in science and the list of years in science.

Astronomy

• Edmund Halley publishes a catalogue of 341 southern stars - the first systematic southern sky survey

Physics

• Christiaan Huygens publishes his Traité de la Lumière/Treatise on Light, which states his principle of wavefront sources
• Robert Hooke discovers the fundamental law of elasticity when he finds that the stress (force) exerted is proportional to the strain (elongation) produced

Zoology

• Publication of English Spiders by Martin Lister, the first book devoted to spiders.

Births

Deaths