1608 in science

Technology

• October 2 – Hans Lippershey demonstrates the first known telescope to the government of the Dutch Republic.
• The flintlock muzzleloader is invented; unlike most weapon systems which only lasted a few decades, the flintlock has a long-term impact.
• The manufacture of alum is invented and successfully practised in England, under the patronage of King James, by Lord Sheffield.

Zoology

• Edward Topsell's bestiary The Historie of Serpents is published in London by William Jaggard.

Births

• January 28 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian scientist
• August 4 – John Tradescant the younger, English botanist
• October 15 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician

Deaths

• December – Oswald Croll, German chemist and physician