Each image below will provide you with valuable insights into science.
Many people believe that science is similar to a mysterious puzzle, with researchers being the most curious players. The mysteries of science are vast and expansive, so not everyone can fully understand science and the world around them.
The scientific images below represent significant efforts by scientists, and many of us will gain a deeper understanding of the world after appreciating them.
1. View from the Window at Le Gras
This photograph was taken by Nicéphore Niépce around 1826 from the window of his home in Le Gras, Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. It is regarded as the first successful photograph in the history of photography.
The image displays the view from the rooftop window of Niépce’s home. He captured this photograph using a dark chamber (chambre noire) with a lens covered in a 20 × 25 cm sheet of bitumen. The exposure time for the photograph was 8 hours, which allowed sunlight to illuminate both sides of the image.
Nicéphore Niépce took this photograph as a prediction of how humanity would share images in the future. We can now share photographs of our children, parents, loved ones, and even ourselves.
2. The Flea Image
This is the most significant flea specimen of all time. The image is a piece of art from the book Micrographia – a collection of illustrated drawings created by Robert Hooke, an English botanist, in 1655.
More importantly, the drawing showcased the power of the microscope, allowing Hooke to describe the details of these insects. The book is currently displayed at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in the United States.
3. Hubble’s eXtreme Deep Field
Have you ever wondered what the first galaxies looked like? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope created the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) – the deepest image of the universe captured using visible light.
The image shows the oldest galaxies captured at a distance of 13.2 billion light-years. This latest photo is part of a series of deep images that began in 1995, containing hundreds of galaxies and billions of stars concentrated in a single image.
4. DNA Structure
This seemingly scribbled image on paper changed everything. On April 25, 1953, the article “Molecular structure of nucleic acid: a structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid” by molecular biologists James Watson and Francis Crick was published in Nature, marking a significant advancement in understanding DNA properties.
They proposed the complete spatial structure of DNA: a double helix twisting around an imaginary axis, where nucleotides (the components of nucleic acids, DNA, and RNA) are linked together horizontally by hydrogen bonds according to the principle of complementarity.
5. Earthrise
This photograph was taken in 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. Earthrise is accurately described as the most magnificent landscape photograph of all time. An interesting fact about this iconic image is that it was captured by an amateur photographer.
The photograph captures the moment when Earth just emerged from the darkened side. Thus, one can feel the silence of the universe in this impressive and dramatic scene captured from a window as they orbited the Moon.
6. Charles Darwin’s Tree of Life
The tree of life proposed by Charles Darwin describes the evolutionary history of a group of species with different characteristics, but that are related and descended from a common ancestor in the past.
There are various research directions to demonstrate the characteristics of this species’ origin. This is the first branching diagram of living organisms, illustrated in a notebook titled “B”.
7. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Cosmic microwave background radiation (or cosmic background radiation, the residual radiation of the universe) is electromagnetic radiation generated from the early stages of the universe (about 380,000 years after the Big Bang).
Most cosmologists believe that the cosmic background radiation, along with redshift, provides the best evidence supporting the validity of the Big Bang model of the universe. The discovery of this radiation is considered a significant victory for cosmology.
8. Pale Blue Dot
No image depicts our insignificance in the universe more clearly than the photograph “Pale Blue Dot.” Earth in this image – according to NASA – is only 0.12 pixels in size.
The image was captured from a distance at the request of Carl Sagan in 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe. The photograph showcases the contrast of our planet against the vastness of deep space. This American cosmologist shared, “All of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, our only home.”
9. Copernicus’ Model of the Solar System
Nicolaus Copernicus was an astronomer who proposed the first modern form of the heliocentric theory (with the Sun at the center instead of the Earth) in his groundbreaking book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium).
His development of the heliocentric theory is considered one of the most important scientific hypotheses in history. It marked a shift towards modern astronomy, encouraging young astronomers, scientists, and scholars to view the world differently than previous dogmas.
10. The Hydrogen Bomb Test – Mike Test
Operation Ivy was a strong initiative launched by U.S. President Harry Truman after the Soviet Union developed its first hydrogen bomb in the fall of 1949, intensifying the arms race during the Cold War.
Ivy Mike was the code name for the nuclear test conducted on November 1, 1952, on Enewetak Atoll, as part of Operation Ivy. This was the first full-scale thermonuclear device tested based on the Teller-Ulam design (layered thermonuclear bomb) and is often regarded as the first hydrogen bomb.
The image shows an explosion 500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. We hope this is a sight we will never have to witness.
