The year 1751 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Events

• Nickel (symbol Ni, atomic weight 58.71, atomic number 28) is discovered, in the mineral nickeline, by chemist Axel Fredrik Cronstedt in Stockholm, Sweden (although nickel was used in coins in China as early as 235 BCE).
• The pupil reflex is discovered: it is the first reflex of the human body to be discovered.
• The globular cluster 47 Tucanae (or 47 Tuc), visible with the unaided eye from the southern hemisphere, is discovered by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who catalogued it in his list of southern nebulous objects: at a distance of 16000 lightyears, it has a total mass nearly 1 million times the Sun's mass and is 120 lightyears across, making it appear on the sky as wide as the full moon.

Awards

• Copley Medal: John Canton

Births

• Pierre Prévost, physicist (died 1839)

Deaths

• Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux, Swiss mathematician and astronomer (born 1718)