Miranda, Beverlie Ezra C.

9-A SCIENCE

A Ancient Greek Philosopher, 19th century Quaker and Novel Prize-winnung Scientist is separated over
2,400 years of history and each of them contributed to answering the eternal question " what is Stuff? "
The Stuff is Democritus first proposed around 440 BCE that everything in the world was made up of tiny
particles surrounded by empty space. He even speculated that they vary in size and shape depending on
the substance they compose. And he called these particles " atomos " Greek for invisible. Earth, wind,
water and fire are the four elements.

Atoms would remain all but forgotten until 1808. As a Quaker, Dalton lived modestly until the end of his
days. Physicists J.J Thompson's 1897 discovery of the electron. He showed atoms as uniformly packed
spheres of positive matter filled with negatively charged electrons. And he won a Nobel Prize in 1906 for
his electron discovery. Rutherford decided to investigate atoms more closely. Most of the particles did
pass through some bounced right back and the others have been like a bunch of tennis balls punching
through a thin paper screen. Werner Heisenberg showed it was impossible to determine both the exact
position and speed of electrons as they moved around an atom. And we can imagine Democritus turned
out to have been right all long.