Science's Darkest Painting

The One that Made Scientists Question the State of Science Itself

We may not be in Spooky Science Series anymore, but I have one more story I want to share. It’s a painting depicting a rare moment in scientific history with way darker undertones than most people realize.

Let’s get into it…

In 1659, an Irish chemist and natural philosopher (an early term for the word “scientist”) named Robert Boyle unveiled an invention he called the “pneumatic engine.” It was an air pump, and it would change everything. This device allowed scientists to study what happens to living things when you remove the air around them, providing the first concrete proof that oxygen matters and that without it, we die.

Some historians argue that Boyle’s pneumatic engine helped birth the Scientific Revolution. But there’s a darker side to this story that most people don’t know.

While Boyle was proud of his pneumatic engine and believed it would unlock the secrets of life itself, he was also drowning in guilt. He wrote a little-known manuscript called “Moral Epistle Concerning Ethics of Treatment of Animals,” and in it, he confesses something haunting: using the pneumatic engine on birds and other creatures gave him anguish.

He was torn between two realities. The device fueled his passion for scientific progress, but it also made him realize with renewed vigor the fragility and sanctity of life.

And Boyle wasn’t alone in his moral crisis. Across the world, people were grappling with the same question: What are we becoming? Science was advancing faster than ever before, but at what cost to our humanity?

There’s a painting that captures this exact moment in history: the anxiety, the excitement, the moral crisis of the Scientific Revolution. It’s called An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, painted in 1768 by Joseph Wright of Derby, and it’s one of the most poignant paintings you’ll ever see.