Virtual Backgrounds

NSF research impacts nearly every field of science and engineering. NSF's influence reaches from the ends of the Earth to the depths of the oceans and to space and beyond. Our Multimedia Gallery has some of the most stunning images from NSF’s research legacy. Explore some of our most beautiful gallery images below to download for your next virtual meeting.

a jumping spider
A male jumping spider (Saitis barbipes).

Credit: Photo/Bernard Dupont/Wikimedia Commons (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International)

Twisting and untwisting crystals
Twisting and untwisting crystals

Credit: John Freudenthal and Alexander Shtukenberg, New York University

liquid crystals
Liquid crystals bend light into psychedelic patterns.

Credit: Oleg Lavrentovich, Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University

buckeye wing
Underside of artificially selected blue buckeye butterfly wing scales showing their iridescent lamina

Credit: Rachel Thayer

crystals
DNA Shape. The strong lines in this image echo the sinuous shape of a single strand of DNA.

Credit: Jaya G. Yodh Ph.D., teaching assistant professor, medical education facilitator, Carle Illinois College of Medicine; research assistant professor, Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

multi-center hydrogen bond
A multi-center hydrogen bond

Credit: Professor Chris Van de Walle, Dr. Anderson Janotti, Solid State Lighting and Energy, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB); Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Lance Putnam and Basak Alper, Media Arts and Technology, UCSB

xray of zebra fish
Confocal microscopy image of nerve fibers in zebrafish brain

Credit: HHMI Janelia Research Campus

abstract
Rat brain showing three specific lipids

Credit: Don Smith, National MagLab

bucky balls
Total quantum state of buckyballs measured

Credit: Ye Group and Steven Burrows/JILA

neutron stars
Artist's impression of the explosion and burst of gravitational waves emitted when a pair of superdense neutron stars collide

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF

Dramatic image of arctic ice in the middle of arctic ocean with beautiful sky in the background.
Sunlight reflecting on the ice-free water of Canada Basin is an indicator of warming in the western Arctic Ocean.

Credit: Zhangxian Ouyang, University of Delaware


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Science Happens Here


Science Happens Here Campaign.
Science Happens Here Campaign.

Credit: National Science Foundation

 

Learn more about Science Happens Here

Science Happens Here Campaign.
Science Happens Here Campaign.

Credit: National Science Foundation