The year 1602 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• Thomas Blundeville publishes The Theoriques of the Seuen Planets, assisted by Lancelot Browne.^[1]

Chemistry

• Vincenzio Cascarido discovers barium sulfide.^[2]
• Commencement of publication of Theatrum Chemicum, a compendium of European alchemical writings.

Exploration

• May 15 – Bartolomew Gosnold becomes the first European to discover Cape Cod.
• Henry Briggs publishes his first mathematical work A Table to find the Height of the Pole, the Magnetical Declination being given in London.

Medicine

• Felix Plater publishes Praxis medica classifying diseases by their symptoms.

Physics

• Galileo begins his study of falling bodies.^[2]

Births

• March 18 – Jacques de Billy, French Jesuit mathematician (died 1679)
• August 8 – Gilles de Roberval, French mathematician (died 1675)
• November 20 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist (died 1686)

Deaths

• July 28 – Peder Sørensen, Danish physician (born 1542)
• Juan de Fuca, Greek navigator (born 1536)