The early Greek philosophers were in much the same position as our space visitor when they attempted to think about the nature of matter. They were unable to observe matter close up and could only guess why and how it acted as it did. One of them, Democritus (5th century BC), believed that matter was made up of indivisible atoms (from the Greek word atomos which means something that cannot be divided).
It was not a popular idea for it also suggested that the gods of the Ancient World were not in complete control of the movement of these atoms and this, to the Greeks of that time, was certainly unthinkable.
Little progress was made in the understanding of the nature of matter for nearly 2,000 years. Then, in the middle of the 16th century, a Dominican monk, Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600), attempted to revive the atomic theory. He was, as it happened, burned at the stake for his ‘outlandish’ ideas and it was left to Pierre Gassendi ( I592 - I655), a French philosopher and mathematician, again to suggest that matter was made up of moving atoms.
Gassendi was careful to explain that in his view atomic movement was under the complete control of God. This made his theories acceptable, but Still almost impossible to prove one way or the other.
Today, with modern electron microscopes we can examine the structure much more closely and obtain some direct evidence of the existence of atoms, though even now we cannot actually see them as separate particles. We have still not moved as close to the atom as our imaginary space visitor to the line of cars on earth. But there is no need to see these atoms directly, for their existence has been confirmed in many ways, and they have enabled scientists to explain chemical and physical phenomena.
LINKS TO IMAGES:
https://www.emaze.com/@AFWWRLOW
https://jamescungureanu.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/myths-about-science-and-religion-that-giordano-bruno-was-the-first-martyr-of-modern-science/
https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/pierre-gassendi.html
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ris/impactinnovation/impact/analyticalguide/cryotem/
Nice info! Thanks for sharing!
Hey thanks for reading and the up vote. Look out for more of my posts.
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