The Artistic History of Biology

Humanity as always found constant awe and beauty in living systems. As we learn more about biology, the way we depict it is has changed. We’ve moved from meticulous, hand-drawn images to high-resolution, digital microscope images. Let’s take a tour through the beautiful history of biology, looking at some its most famous art.

Ancient Greek Physician treating a patient, 480–470 B.C.E.

Ancient Romans would often portray animals in mosaics. 3rd Century C.E.

Medieval human anatomy. Someone get this guy some morphine, stat!

A horse depicted by an Egyptian in the 15th Century.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. An anatomical breakdown of the human form, 1490 C.E.

In 1543, Vesalius published a book with many biological images called Fabrica.

Robert Hooke invented the first effective light microscope. This is a slice of cork. He was the first to observe what he called “cells.” He published many images of cells in 1665.

Anton Van Leeuwenhoek improved the microscope and recorded the first observations of bacteria, which he called “animalcules.” 1673

Carl Linnaeus was a botanist and zoologist who came up with the classification systems for organisms. This drawing is from 1735.

Charles Darwin drew thousands of animals that he saw on his journeys. These drawings helped him observe evolution and outline its theory for the first time. Origin of the Species was published in 1859.

The first underwater photograph, taken by Louis Boutan in 1893. This opened up a whole new world of biology to explore under the sea.

One of the first X-ray images. X-rays are one of many imaging techniques that allow us to better understand biology. This was taken by Wilhelm Roentgen of his wife’s hand on January 23, 1896.

This X-ray diffraction image revealed the double helix structure of DNA for the first time. The image was taken by Rosalind Franklin & Raymond Gosling, and James Watson & Francis Crick proposed the structure of DNA. May 1952.

The first MRI scan of a human body was given on July 3, 1977. MRI and ultrasound gave us much more insight into fetal development.

Scanning electron microscopes can give us incredibly detailed images of small objects. The image above is pollen. The scanning electron microscope was invented in 1931 and has provided incredible insight into our world.

SEM images can also be colored. This is a cat flea (ctenocephalides felis).

Silica nanoparticles, pseudo-colored in pink, entering the cell membrane of a macrophage, taken with an electron micrograph at Baylor College of Medicine.

Scanning Tunneling Elecron Microscopes can magnify even the smallest particles. These are individual copper atoms. Scientists at IBM dragged them into place with a minuscule needle. We can now see the building blocks that make up the chemistry of life.

Computer modeling has changed the way we visualize the microscopic world. We can illustrate bacteria, viruses, and even individual molecules.

High speed cameras now enable us to capture something as quick as a dragonfly’s wing in incredible detail

Deep sea photography opens up a strange, surreal world.

Next begins our search for life on other planets. The Curiosity rover is scanning the surface of Mars, looking for new forms of life. The next beautiful biological art may be totally alien to us.

“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.” — Jules Henri Poincaré

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