The year 1726 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Botany
October 27 – Caleb Threlkeld publishes Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum .....Dispositarum sive Commentatio de Plantis Indigenis praesertim Dublinensibus instituta in Dublin, the first flora of Ireland.
Medicine
A faculty of medicine is formally established at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, a predecessor of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. John Rutherford becomes Professor of Practice of Medicine.
Technology
For clocks, the gridiron pendulum is developed by John Harrison, as a pendulum that compensates for temperature errors: a grid of alternating brass and steel rods is arranged so that the expansion due to heat is dissipated.
Publications
Johann Beringer publishes Lithographiæ Wirceburgensis describing hoax fossils.
Births
February 6 – Patrick Russell, Scottish-born surgeon and herpetologist (died 1805) June 3 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (died 1797) Thomas Melvill, Scottish natural philosopher (died 1753) date unknown - Lady Anne Monson, English botanist (died 1776)
Deaths
January 25 – Guillaume Delisle, French scientist, one of the founders of modern geography (born 1675)