Physics, from the Greek word for "nature," is the oldest and most basic of all the sciences. Since its ancient origins, physics has provided us with an evolving yet comprehensive picture of the world around us and has served as the prototypical science. The main image recalls the famous words of Archimedes, "Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I shall move the world." While his predecessor, Aristotle, was the definitive author and promulgator of physics as theory, Archimedes was the most famous "applied physicist" of his day and long thereafter. The Academy dome was designed at a time of intense popular enthusiasm for the discoveries in basic physics and astronomy, from mysterious quantum physics and relativity to the expanding universe. But it was also a time when the public and the professions were intensely interested in the applications of science to industry and to the general welfare. As in ancient Greece, pure and applied sciences were bound together in an uneasy relationship. Two smaller images expand this theme. The Air Pump of Robert Boyle was an iconic instrument used to investigate many principles of the new physics. The electromagnet depicted in the other smaller image was used by Michael Faraday to demonstrate the conversion of electricity and magnetism and led the way to the concepts of energy and field. It, too, was iconic and emblematic in its day and stimulated many useful inventions.