10 Most Influential Science Photographs Of All Time

Images that inspire and ignite scientific minds

Every picture speaks a story of its own. One of my hobbies, ever since I was a kid, has been to explore the historical aspects of science, physics, to be more specific. I would search the picture books of history and surf the internet going through images of scientists, scientific inventions, and events, and would try to find out the story behind those pictures, which in fact, is a very effective method to study history. I don’t understand why most people find history so boring. I think it’s really amusing to explore and learn about past events. Coming back to science, I learned a great deal about physics and mathematics through images, and I believe anyone can learn to a great extent about anything with the help of photographs. In this article, I shall share the ten most iconic science photographs of all time. Some of these pictures were captured several years ago, in fact, decades ago yet they are crucially significant and hold a great essence to science and scientific endeavor. Images belong to the respective archives and owners which are mentioned alongside each.

Pale Blue Dot by Voyager 1

Earth is seen from nearly 6 billion kilometers away. Image credit and courtesy: NASA/JPL- Caltech

This mage shows the Earth as a tiny speck on the vastness of the universe. Captured by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in February 1990, Pale Blue Dot (coined by Carl Sagan) is one of the most iconic photographs in the history of science that portrays a prolific example of scientific endeavor.

The first antiparticle

Cloud chamber showing the first antiparticle ever discovered, the positron. Image credit and courtesy: American Physical Society

Physicist Carl Anderson discovered the first antiparticle (positron) on 2 August 1932. He was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery. The above image shows the trajectory of a positron ion trail in a cloud chamber separated by a 6mm lead plate. The discovery of antimatter has been crucial in our understanding of the universe.

Photo 51

51st diffraction image of DNA fiber captured by Raymond Gosling and Rosalind Franklin. Image Source: https://www-project.slac.stanford.edu/wis/images/photo_51.jpg

We all know that the discovery of the double-helical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is one of the important discoveries in the history of science. But very few people know that the discovery was possible due to the diffraction image of a Para crystalline gel of DNA fiber captured by Raymond Gosling and Rosalind Franklin in 1952.

Stunning Earth-rise from orbit of the moon

Earth-rise image in the vastness of the cosmos taken by Bill Anders. Image credit and courtesy: NASA

Moon rises are really stunning. But what does it feel like to see the earth-rise? The first-ever image of the earth-rise was captured by astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968. Anders took the picture of the stunning blue marble from the orbit of the moon during his Apollo 8 mission.

First x-ray ever taken

First-ever x-ray taken on December, 1895. Wikimedia Commons Image

Dr. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen is credited for the discovery of the x-rays, for which he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics. The image shows the hand of Röntgen’s wife captured on a photographic plate in 1896 making it the first-ever x-ray ever taken of a human body part. X-rays have been crucial in modern medical diagnostics and many other areas of science.

The iconic physics duo

Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr walking together. Image captured by Paul Ehrenfest in 1930.

Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein are the two most brilliant theoretical physicists of all time. They are also credited as being the pioneers of modern quantum mechanics. The image shows an iconic physics duo where Einstein and Bohr are conversing, probably about the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, during the 1930 Solvay Conference in Brussels.

Last known image of science geniuses

[Left] Albert Einstein (Image source: Subtle is the Lord By Abraham Pais) and [Right] Nikola Tesla, Tesla Estate Image (Image source)

Einstein and Tesla are two great geniuses with immense contributions to science and scientific developments. We see them as inspirations. These images are the last known images of the geniuses. The picture of Albert Einstein was captured in March 1955, in front of 112 Mercer Street. The image of Tesla was taken in New York Hotel, 1st Jan 1943.

Bonding in molecule

Image of a nanographene molecule. Image credit and courtesy: IBM

This is not an ordinary photograph that we usually take in our lives. It is an actual picture of a molecule taken by IBM created by using a technique called Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The image shows carbon bonds in a nanographene molecule which was made at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and created by IBM scientists.

The Hubble Deep Field

Hubble Ultra Deep Field infrared captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and processes in 2004. Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble

The universe is a pretty big stage and unlike the preconceived notion of the fact that the milky way is the only galaxy in the universe, we now know that there are billions and billions of galaxies out there all receding away from one another. The Hubble Deep Field is the image of the portion of constellation Ursa Major captured by the Hubble Space Telescope that shows hundreds of thousands of galaxies like ours.

The great physics foursome

Einstein, Yukawa, Wheeler and Bhabha walking at IAS. Image credit and source: Institute for Advanced Study

I love this photograph very much and have one on one of the walls of my study room. The image shows physicists Albert Einstein, Hideki Yukawa, John Wheeler, and Homi Bhabha walking through Marquand park in Princeton NJ, in 1954.

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