Image prompts for science and teaching
55 original image-generation prompts across 13 scientific and educational niches, each written for this site rather than collected from elsewhere.
Every section also states what image models get wrong in that niche, which is the part most prompt lists leave out and the part that saves the most time. A diffusion model cannot draw a correct benzene ring, cannot spell an element name reliably, and cannot be trusted with any figure it renders as text. Knowing where the wall is beats another hundred style adjectives.
Molecular structures
Stylised chemistry visuals — and why never for the real structure.
5 prompts
Laboratory scenes
Glassware, benches and lab work — where models are genuinely strong.
5 prompts
Physics concepts
Forces, waves and fields — conceptual, never quantitative.
5 prompts
Infographics and explainers
Layout and style, with the numbers added afterwards.
4 prompts
Classroom and teaching
Posters, worksheets and slides for teachers.
4 prompts
Astronomy and space
Beautiful, evocative, and not to be trusted as astronomy.
4 prompts
Medical and anatomy
Atmosphere for health content — never anatomy anyone learns from.
4 prompts
Engineering and technical
Machinery and materials — never a working drawing.
4 prompts
Data science and analytics
The aesthetic of analysis, with real numbers added later.
4 prompts
Microscopy and cell biology
Striking micrographs — with invented biology.
4 prompts
Earth and environment
Landscapes and weather — but never a map.
4 prompts
Mathematics and geometry
Geometric beauty, never a proof figure.
4 prompts
Product and packaging
Mockups and mood — with a warning about honesty.
4 prompts
The one rule worth keeping
Generate atmosphere, not information. A header image, a background, a texture, a character — all fine, and image models are good at them. Anything a reader could learn a fact from — a labelled diagram, a chart with numbers, a structure a student will revise from — must not be generated, because it will be wrong and it will look right. That combination is the problem.
Where you need the real figure, this site has calculators and a compound reference that compute it rather than imagining it.