The year 1548 in science and technology included a number of events, some of which are listed here.

• February 14 – Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan.
• August 10 – Debate in Milan between mathematicians Lodovico Ferrari and Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia concerning the algebraic method for resolving third-degree equations. ^[1]
• John Dee starts to study at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

• Georgius Agricola – De animantibus subterraneis
• Valerius Cordus – Pharmacorum conficiendorum ratio (posthumous)
• Rembert Dodoens – Cosmographica in astronomiam et geographiam isagoge
• Gemma Frisius – De Orbis divisione et insulis rebusque nuper inventis
• William Turner – The names of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe Duche and Frenche wyth the commune names that Herbaries and Apotecaries use

• April 15 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (died 1626)
• Giordano Bruno, Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, astrologer and astronomer (k. 1600)
• Abul Qasim ibn Mohammed al-Ghassani, Moroccan physician (died 1610)
• approx. date – Simon Stevin, Flemish scientist (died 1620)