The story of the atom
The idea that matter is made of indivisible pieces runs from philosophical reasoning through kalām debates to the laboratory and the particle accelerator.
This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute.
Stop 1c. 585 BCEPhilosophyTradition / school
The Presocratics and ancient atomism
Democritus and Leucippus argued, by reasoning alone, that everything consists of indivisible atoms moving in the void.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 2Kalām (Islamic theology)Idea / theory / claim
Kalām atomism (al-jawhar al-fard)
Kalām theologians also held that bodies are made of indivisible parts, but placed the idea in a different frame by holding that these atoms are re-created at every moment.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 31661ChemistryText / work
Boyle and "The Sceptical Chymist"
Boyle questioned the four-element theory through experiments and argued that matter is made of small particles.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 41808ChemistryIdea / theory / claim
Atomic theory
Dalton gave atoms measurable weights and proposed that compounds form when atoms combine in simple ratios.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 51869ChemistryEvent / publication / experiment
The periodic table
Mendeleev arranged the elements in a table and predicted the properties of elements not yet found for the gaps he left.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 61967PhysicsIdea / theory / claim
The Standard Model
In the twentieth century atoms themselves turned out to be divisible. The Standard Model describes the fundamental particles and interactions known today.
Claims, evidence and sources →Stop 7July 2012PhysicsEvent / publication / experiment
Discovery of the Higgs boson
The Higgs boson, the last particle the theory predicted, was observed at CERN in 2012. Gravity and dark matter still lie outside the picture.
Claims, evidence and sources →
Other journeys
- From the night sky to the beginning of the universe · 11 stops
- The journey of medicine · 8 stops
- From counting to artificial intelligence · 11 stops
- Reason and revelation: a debate in Islamic thought · 9 stops
- Views on the origin of living things · 11 stops
- From brain to mind · 9 stops