What Are The Most Important Science Images Ever?

↓ More info and sources below ↓

One picture can change the world!

Science isn't always a visual medium, but I think it's most important moments have often been captured in photos and illustrations. I picked out some of my favorite science images from history.

Music:
"Ouroboros" by Kevin MacLeod
"Kitten" by Podington Bear
"Wonder" by Podington Bear

Created by Joe Hanson

Produced for PBS Digital Studios
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[stormkern]

The Hubble Deep Field blows my mind every time.

[igoronline]

4:10 - YES! Thank you so much for giving her proper credit!

[wafflezorz]

I appreciate that you give credit, mostly, to Rosalind Franklin. I feel it is rarely pointed out that Watson and Crick essentially stole her work.

[jusstcallmeclo]

Love that you gave credit to rosalind franklin! Seeing as how her contribution to the discovery of the double helix is almost always forgotten about

[M]

Sort of looks like a mixture of John and Hank Green!

[elquemando]

I nominate for inclusion among the most important images in Science: Wilhelm Roentgen's 1895 "Hand mit Ringen" X-ray photograph of his wife's hand.

[cesaracosta]

koodos for mentioning Rosland Franklin first and as the key contributor, as it should be 

[mandydax]

Not only did you mention Rosalind Franklin, but you gave her top billing. <3 Joe. :)

[DoDoBird]

Totally going to go with The Pale Blue Dot and Photo 51.

[charmainlee]

Saw the aurora australia as a 5year old Mr father pointed to the sky and identified the aurora in the sky lived on the east coast of australia. I have never seen it again I am now 71. Still looking up love watching your channel I hope to learn more before I die never stop learning it keeps the brain stimulated.

[marclux]

Kudos for helping to rescue Rosalind Franklin.  

[mathemore]

I'm from Sobral, Brazil. Here we have a so called "Museum of Eclipse", where Einstein is honored for his discoveries.

[ronnieortiz]

The pale blue dot and the reason why is eloquently explained by Carl Sagan. The most important photograph in history in my opinion

[AmorSciendi]

I like the image of Kepler's Cup: his model of a universe based on the Platonic solids. It may have been wrong, but it's pretty and demonstrated outrageous mathematical creativity. 

The way I see pictures is that they allow us to communicate in a sorta universal language. English can only be understood by people who understand English. But if you draw a picture of a pencil and show it someone in another country who speaks a different language, they will know what your talking about without having to say anything. I think that's awesome.

[nikhil_menda]

My absolute favorite picture is the pale blue dot. Affected me pretty significantly.

[Mrcaptan]

Pale blue dot, man... you missed pale blue dot...

[stillshotprod]

I had to give you a thumbs up just for the Rosalind Franklin comment.

[maxximumb]

It's a bit late, but the Voyager pale blue dot photo is very thought provoking.

[CoryPelizzari]

And here, we travel back in time to an older video on this particular channel, and we can see remnants of an ages old technique discarded by our subject - the "jump cut".