JF Ptak Science Books   Post 2425

Here’s an interesting set of delightful photographs (and one painting) of some great scientists as babies and kids.  Many of them are obvious, I think, and you can see their developed and mature faces in themselves from very early on.  For example in the first photo is Niels Bohr, his arched eyebrows and halfways-kinda-grin already there at age 4 or 5.  Paul Dirac is gorgeous as a kid and he keeps those eyes throughout his life. The Einstein is an uncommon images, plucking him from a class photo–I guess you can see him in there, somewhere, though it isn’t as Einstein-y as some of the other early photos of him where his eyes are just unmistakable.  Feynman looks like Feynman, sly and smart-as-hell; and the impish and sparkling Turing seems as he would be decades on.  On the other hand the fabulous Kurt Goedel baby could be almost anyone–though I have to say it isn’t often you see photos with the baby’s arm raised.  

Four of these came from a very nice post on exactly this topic at Kuriositas: (http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/10/famous-scientists-as-children.html) though even at the outset there are more science babies and kids together here than I can find elsewhere.  

Niels Bohr, 1890, age about 5. Source: http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/www/niels/bohr/barndom/