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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 23/07/2026

bit weird isn't it when do the generic search engine thing for Robert Hooke, at top you get an AI slop image of him with a clearly 19thc or later compound microscope, entirely unlike that which he pioneered. Oh yeah also a desk lamp as well as a candle. Great stuff. Internet's doing very well

top of Google Results for Robert Hooke, with AI slop image as top result

full AI slop image of "Robert Hooke" with a developed compound microscope and desk lamp with bulb

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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 23/07/2026

it's not like you can't find an example of the sort of microscope Hooke would've been using extremely easily collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8430

Science Museum 1928-786

Their description: Compound microscope designed by Robert Hooke, 1671-1700 and thought to have been made by Christopher Cock, Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, but not signed. Part of an accessory for manipulating specimens has survived and the objective lens is a modern replacement made in 1965.

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Dr James Alexander Cameron @drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com · 24/07/2026

Realised interesting factor here is that Hooke has no authenticated likeness and the AI is leaping in to fill a gap. The second image google recommends is a portrait attributed to Mary Beale in 1680s argued to be Hooke; the third is an imagined portrait of 2004 following contemporary descriptions.

Portrait sold at Sotheby's 2006, current location undisclosed. 2006 description.
"Mary Beale
Portrait of a mathematician
oil on canvas

three-quarter length, seated in a front of an astrological globe, wearing red robes, holding a pair of compasses."

It has been argued the paper his compasses rest on is a September 1685 manuscript of Hooke's “The Laws of Circular Motion”, and the view of Lowther Castle and its church, which Hooke has been suggested as being consulted on regarding its rebuilding in 1686.

Biggest issue is, for the mid 1680s, he doesn't look 50

As no contemporary portrait of Robert Hooke seems to have survived from the seventeenth century, this one is a reconstruction from the descriptions by his colleagues Aubrey and Waller. It shows him with a spring, pocket watch, fossil and map of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666. He helped to survey and plan the rebuilding. The sky on the left indicates his interest in astronomy.
2004, oil on board, Rita Greer (b. 1942)
The original is an oil painting on board by Rita Greer, history painter, 2004. This was digitized by Rita and sent via email to the Department of Engineering Science, Oxford University, where it was subsequently uploaded to Wikimedia.

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